Phantom Age
by GoliathPyroson
Summary: Halfas. One half Human, one half Spirit. Few of them exist, three to be exact. they exist because humans built bridges between the Spirit World and Earth. Now, the worlds are rebuilding the bridges that were already there, and a new species may rise from the joining.
1. Prologue

**Me oh my, my lovely readers, this is Goliath Pyroson comin at you from his dorm suite at like 11;40 at night, bringing you the newest brainchild that i have birthed, and Danny Phantom is the subject at hand once more. I will warn you now, I'm not sure exactly where this is going. no it's not a prequel to The Summoning, yes I'm still gonna finish that up, but I want to give you all something to read while you wait!**

 **and so without further adue, YO DANNY FENTON HE WAS JUST FOURTEEN**

* * *

Danny is not a normal guy, in any sense of the word. His parents are geniuses in various scientifically quantified ways. Jack is an expert in mechanical engineering, Maddie is an excellent biochemist, and the two of them had discovered alternate realities, fought off paranormal entities in their years of travel between college and settling down. They invented technology that the world only dreamed of unless you're a member of the secret government agency called the Guys in White. They are also so obsessed with their particular field of study, paranormal science, that the two of them hardly recognized anything they made that isn't ghost related as truly significant or groundbreaking.

His sister is obviously as smart as their parents. Everyone who knows her name knows Jazz Fenton is a brilliant psychologist, a mathematical genius, and an A+ student all around. What most didn't know is that she also excelled in mechanical engineering and helped to build some of the technology that her parents made, even built the engine for their prized exploration vehicle the Specter Speedster. Really, she didn't see that as all that special either, it was something her parents could do faster than she and had faded into a mundane task whenever one of the previous inventions broke and her parents hadn't the time to fix it since they were on another project.

Danny himself is not far from the tree in intelligence, though he'd never recognize or acknowledge as such. Growing up in a house full of geniuses makes upgrading the prototype Gravity Inverter your parents made and helping your sister replace the ectoplasmically powered rifles hidden around the house in case of a ghost attack when a power surge had them all go off while still hidden in the walls seem ordinary. The process of rebuilding the guns from scratch and properly seating them in their proper place is tedious and used to be complex, but it's just something that he had grown to live with and wrote off as something anyone that might grow up in the same environment as he would have to figure out as well.

What Danny sees about himself as unique would have to be his walk into the failed interdimensional gateway that his parents had crafted where he'd accidentally turned it on. While it was plugged in, and he was inside. Needless to say, the amount of electrical discharge and the bombardment of transdimensional energy killed him, disassembling his very atomic structure. The fact that he's still around to guard the secret of the tale will tell you said atoms were put back together, that which made him a human resident of our world still present, for the most part. What had been lost to the electricity burning half of him away, was replaced with the energy of the world he had just opened a doorway to. Thus, he became the second half ghost, or halfa as the inhabitants of the Spirit World - or Ghost Zone as his parents called it - referred to his new kind as.

Unfortunately, along with being forced into this new state of being both alive and dead - is he really dead? Did ectoplasmic beings all count as dead beings or are some of them alive in their own way? He didn't want to be dead - came the burden of warding off the malicious beings who come through the portal. Some of the more significant of these ghostly foes are sent by the first of his kind to murder his father, whilst others have plans of their own to fulfill, and even one whose original plan, Danny didn't know. He had heard Danny's assumption of what he would do and rolled with it, trying to accomplish his goal with an obsessive determination that all of the ghosts seemed to share. An obsessive stubbornness that terrified the poor teenage defender of the living world.

Danny has his fair share of enemies, but he also has some friends and allies. His life is complicated, dangerous, and flat out exhausting. With no time to focus on school, barely any to hang out with his friends in a normal way, and the rest spent patrolling his city for ghosts and fighting the malevolent ones. Somehow, he's managing at the moment. Hovering like a Reaper over him is the fear of his parents - either being killed in the crossfire or killing him on a lab table - the other halfa, Vlad, the government agency out to get him, and every spirit and ghost coming through the portal in his basement or a natural one close by who wants to pick a fight with him and might eventually win and even his own possible future.

Daniel James Fenton is not a normal guy, but he has established his own sense of normal since he was fourteen years old. Unfortunately, Danny Phantom is about to have his sense of normalcy ripped away from him once again by the cruel mistress known as Fate and her partner in crime Destiny.

* * *

And just as Fate and Destiny conspired against Danny, so did they against his most powerful ally, Time.

Clockwork is not a fan of ripples in the Timestream. Things that had changed in the timeline they were watching over gave the Time Guardian and master a headache. Events as influential as this gave them head splitting migraines. Some being, some entity, some _force_ had changed the course of Time, and centered the new events to come around three particular beings, though the third was a mild surprise. In their mirrors within the observation room of the Citadel of Time, Clockwork saw the three living halfas, Daniel Fenton/Phantom, Vlad Damian Masters/Plasmius, and Danielle Protea Phantom. That Vlad had cared even slightly enough to give her a middle name gave Clockwork something that they seldom had the privilege of having before Danny came into the picture: hope.

The halfas are a species endangered simply by the fact that they had come to be by the will of Fate and the Spirit World herself. But if Clockwork was correct in their reading of this timeline, they are about to become quite a bit less endangered. "Daniel needs to know of this…"

* * *

 **YES i do love tormenting you with omninous endings, no i will not reveal anything from The Summoning here, or vice versa. All shall be revealed in Time. Till next Time, I love you all, leave nice reviews, and remember!**

 **HAIL PHANTOM, THE HYBRID KING!**


	2. Technical difficulties

**Before you all ask, yes, I am aware that it's been forever since I claimed to have The Summoning done. when a single thing is pointed out, it sends you into a spiral of "oh crap, that's wrong with like, everything" so, yeah. have patience. the next chapter of that will be coming once my lovely beta reader has judged the newest draft of it proper and good.**

 **for now, I bring you this little brainchild that _will_ be going somewhere and gives me an excuse to geek out over headcanons and such. so without further ado**

 **CUE THEME SONG**

* * *

Normalcy was such a relative thing. What most might found normal, one or a few could find rather strange, and vice versa. To Danny, his current activity of matching blades with a cyclops that towered over him at fifteen feet tall was completely normal. The clang of green steel against steel had become a familiar and welcome sound to the fifteen-year-old. Ducking a swing, he nicked the larger's leg and backed out of the way just in time to avoid a kick to the head. Unfortunately, Danny didn't see the swing from the empty hand until it was throwing him just outside the edge of the arena that they had been sparring in, a circle of white paint glowing red to signify his loss in the round.

Accepting the large hand that was extended to him, Danny got to his feet, needing to regain his breath after that. "Good fight Asceptious, I don't think I've lasted that long against you since you went easy on me the second time we sparred." He took a bow before stretching, grinning when he saw his friend do the same.

The cyclops, purple skinned with a big brown eye, gently patted the young fighter on his back, a bright toothy grin plastered on his face. "I wanted you to have at least one win under your belt, and you've improved greatly, this time, Danny. Watch out for large fast limbs, most of us in the Spirit World are a lot faster than we seem."

Danny nodded and opened his mouth to reply when he heard a ringing in his ear. "I'm sorry, Asceptious, we'll have to spare again later." One final shake of a hand that easily engulfed his own entirely and Danny walked towards his bag switching off the mute of his Fenton Phone. "What's up guys."

"Got an upgraded emergency Danny," Tucker's voice called through the ear piece, a mite higher than usual in worry. "Technus upgraded again. His hair looks somehow worse, and he's hacked into the street lamps, traffic lights and traffic cameras all over the city. I'd get him out, but I'd need physical access to the control center for each system, and it'd be a lot faster if a certain hero came and shoved him out of the tech."

"I'm on my way," the now silver-haired teen muttered as he pushed his speed in the evergreen void that was the Ghost Zone.

* * *

When Danny arrived on the scene, he saw Technus - with his crazy gray-white hair done into a tall square afro whilst his black and white clothing had turned to something akin to what Danny had bought when the two first met - cackling in the air and waving his hands as though conducting a symphony. What he had been truly doing, well…

It was one of the moments that had Danny questioning the limitations - if any were to exist - of the effects ectoplasm had on the physical world.

As though alive, street lights burned like greek fire, lasers cutting through the air and leaving scorch marks on the concrete where citizens had just been. Danny concentrated and formed a duplicate on his left, turning it invisible and sending it into one of the lamps. To his disappointment - but in no way his surprise - Technus' energy crackled along the metal pole and zapped the duplicate into a cloud of mist.

Trying to force Technus out by imposing his own will over the possessed electronics was a no go. Duplication, however, was not. Splitting once more until there were five of him, Danny sent invisible duplicates out to evacuate the few citizens that had been too terrified to get out when the attack started and built up a charge.

"That hair is the worst I've seen from you, Technus, honestly." Emerald energy sliced through air like a scythe and knocked the technokinetic ghost into one of the nearby buildings. "And don't even get me started on the clothes, do those pants even fit?" Shifting out of the way of a beam of light, Danny shook his head with an exaggerated shudder. "Don't answer that question."

"Damnable child!" a very irate Technus pushed off of the building and aimed all of the lamps at the white haired nuisance that dared to interrupt his moment of glory. "You shall not defeat me, Technus 3.0, this time! This time, you shall be erased from this Earth, and I shall reign supreme!"

Splitting in two and avoiding a laser being fired from one of many upgraded street lamps, Danny pulled himself back together and dodged laser fire, all while taunting his aged enemy. "Really, Technus, I have to say, this is actually a semi-intelligent plan. I can't stop you from using the street lamps, lights, and camera systems. Or at least, I wouldn't be able to if I couldn't go in there and force you out myself." Firing off a blast from his index finger, the half-ghost grinned at the cry of pain from the disgruntled spook. "Or if I didn't know someone who could out hack you, technokinesis be damned."

"Foolish child!" Technus shouted in outrage. "I, Technus, master of all technology, shall burn through you with these street lamps of death and move on to conquer the world!" The wild-haired ghost cackled madly but stopped short when a shiver ran through him and he noticed frost covering the lamps. "What? Why is the temperature dropping? Those lasers should be firing at temperatures of at least three hundred degrees!"

"Yeah, I can tell from the burn marks on the ground." The sound of four voices that were exact copies of each other could be heard from all around, but not once did Danny open his mouth. "But if the source of the lasers chills out, they can't burn me, now can they?" Danny copies flickered in and out of visibility and the original did the same, each passing a subzero touch over a pole as they passed it. Frost covered the glass of the streetlights and even the asphalt on the ground before Technus found himself wrapped up in chains of ectoplasm and being slammed into the nearest lamp post. "I think some time in the Thermos will do you some good for thinking over your poor choices."

Once Technus was sucked into the Thermos, Danny capped it and quickly bent the lamp posts back in the direction they were meant to be facing. It was a quick and admittedly sloppy job, but he had only recently thought of actually cleaning up. But, even when doing a non-violent good deed, the hero was interrupted by fire from an ectorifle. "Aw come on! I was putting everything back too!" Dodging another shot, he took to the skies and prepared to disappear; glad that his ectosignature became nearly untraceable when he reverted to human form. He never got the chance.

As soon as he rounded a corner, Danny's vision was filled with a familiar electric blue light, something like static rolling across his skin and jumpsuit. In a moment – or an eternity, it was hard to tell which – the halfa was surrounded by clocks, mirrors, and a chair he was about to fly into. Thanking Pandora for his improved reflexes, the ghost boy flipped around and slowed down so that he merely had a rough landing, rather than a crash. Looking around, the ghost boy quickly located the Master of Time floating in the center of the room and glared at them.

"A little warning next time, Clockwork? At the very least lemme hear you saying 'Time out', ya know?" The Time master chuckled and floated closer, giving the teen a pat on the back. "It's a bit rude to interrupt someone's dramatic escape from the green, hot, death rays of his parents as they chase after his still lingering soul."

"So you've actually been reading the books that Samantha offers you?" Seeing the boy pout, the now infantile spirit laughed softly and offered a plate of cookies. "Would you like a cookie? I baked them myself."

Danny's hand hovered over the cookies a moment before accepting one. With a bite and a noise of content, he took the whole plate. "Two questions: why did you make cookies, and why exactly am I here? I didn't realize ghosts needed to eat, and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't teleport me up here just for some cookies and tea."

Quirking a brow, the elder spirit raised their staff and their mirrors changed from flickering moments of every time to images of Danny himself, as well as his clone Danielle and several people he didn't recognize, as well as an unknown landmass somewhere in the Ghost Zone . "To answer your first question, I spoke with the various incarnations of myself across the timelines and we all concurred that those cookies are the best way to stop your ranting, and yes, spirits do eat." Shifting into the form of a middle-aged being, Clockwork gestured to their mirrors. "As for why you are here, a series of events is approaching, and you, as well as Vlad and Danielle.

As I'm sure you realize, the three main elements of the event are the only living halfas to date." They waited for Danny to swallow the cookie he was eating at the moment before continuing. "The number of halfas in the worlds is going to increase in coming months." Even without the cookie in his mouth, the snow-haired teen still managed to choke on air.

Once he had regained his breath, Danny shot into the air and stared at the mirrors. "Wait what? How can there be more halfas appearing? I thought only Mom, Dad, and Vlad were able to bridge the worlds?" Staring up at the largest of the mirror, he tried to memorize the faces he saw. A dark face with bright gold eyes, freckles and flower filled hair, a pair of glasses and a quill. "How is that possible?"

"The will of the worlds is something not even I can fully understand, Daniel. The Spirit World and the Earth are coming together once again, and these people shall be caught in between the two. I brought you here to say you must bring these halfas together before the other ghosts in the Spirit World go after them in search of a challenge like Vlad and yourself present, and show them how to use their abilities."

"Wait," Danny raised a brow, hand held up as if to stop everything so that he could think or escape everything that was happening. "You want me to teach all the halfas? How am I supposed to manage that? Are they all even gonna be in America?" One thing Danny regretted gaining from Pandora and Frostbite teaching him over the past few months was a new found sense of logic. The task seemed impossible. "It's not like I can fly straight to Guatemala and be back in time for dinner. I can only go a hundred and thirty miles per hour Clockwork. And what about communication?"

"I cannot give you all of the answers, Daniel," the timeless spirit sighed and patted the ghost boy's head. "I can, however, offer a bit of guidance. The Spirit World is alive, Daniel, and far more awake than the Earth has shown signs of being in the past fifteen thousand years. She can hear her children, at all times, and when one asks for help, She just might give it." The mirrors shifted to show Danielle once again. "I can, however, give you some assistance myself. For instance, I can tell you where your cousin is so that you can get some help from her."

Danny nodded slightly, thinking a bit more carefully than usual. This wasn't something he could take lightly and dive into unawares. A realization came to mind. "If you're helping me, I imagine it's only with one or two things, right?" a nod, and he let out a sigh. "First question: where would I bring them all together? I can't teach them at Fenton Works, it's too dangerous. Where in the Zone could a bunch of new ghosts train without endangering someone thanks to the type of core they have, and be safe from my enemies and the enemies they're bound to make."

"That, Daniel, is one of the things that you will have to ask of the Spirit World. You never know," Clockwork flashed a knowing grin, mischievous in their infantile form. "New places in this world form to meet the needs of new spirits and ghosts. One may form for the halfas in general."

Danny bit into another cookie and nodded, wondering how exactly he was meant to ask the world for help. "And Vlad? How does he play into all of this?" because there was no way in hell the eldest halfa wouldn't discover this new development. "He'll learn about it a while after the new halfas come to be, and I'm glad to have Time on my side," he grinned as Clockwork snorted at his pun, "but he'll find out eventually and I'd like to know what I should do to prepare for that."

Clockwork shifted into the form of an elder once more and twirled their staff in thought. Daniel thought it a pause for dramatic effect, but with Events such as these, even the Time Guardian did not know what exactly would happen. "There are various methods of dealing with Vlad, Daniel," they finally answered. "One of which is to remind him of what he truly wants; he shall soon have an opportunity for that."

"Are you saying that he'll have an opportunity to murder my father when the new halfas appear?" The teen's eyes brightened with protective fury. "Because I'm not gonna let that happen, Clockwork."

"No, Daniel," they sighed and shook their head. "Think about your trip into the possible future, and you'll realize that your father's death is not what he truly wants. I will give you one more piece of helpful advice." A weight could be felt in the halfa's pocket, and the mirrors returned to their flickering states, showing futures, pasts and presents of each world that Danny knew and did not. "We all have our crosses to bear, and choices to make. Think of it this way: at least I'm the only one teleporting you away from your regularly scheduled half-life."

With a flash of blue light that lasted an eternal instant, Danny was hovering over his bed, confused, frustrated, and wishing he could sleep all of this situation away.

* * *

Jazz had turned on the news, but only as background noise. Ever since she had joined her brother in putting the skills their parents taught them to use, she had found it hard to concentrate in utter silence anymore. One thing that brought her attention away from the psychology text for a moment of sympathy and curiosity was the current disaster report. "...in areas where there are no known fault lines, unusual weather patterns, and a rise in reported thefts world wide, with no evidence left behind of the crimes beyond the lack of said stolen goods..."

* * *

 **woo, that was fun to write. this is very short compared to what I'm _still_ writing for this story. but whatever, ya know? I like it. what do you think?**

 **Invader Johnny: Clockwork may care for Danny (maybe) but their main concern is guiding the worlds to the brightest possible future. Danny just so happens to have a great part in that brighter future.**

 **Great: old friend, i assure you, you shall find out soon enough. And I can't confirm that either of those two will be getting any ghostly power. however, i can confirm this: ALL HAIL KING PHANTOM**

 **ok so, I've got exams. like this week. so, if i go silent, keep your fingers crossed for that "I'M NOT DEAD" message, because it's currently a coin toss.**

 **with that morbid thought, Cruel Moon bring the End.**


	3. Lost and Searching

**Ok so, i'm still not dead. i just feel it at the moment. bad night. happy birthday america, you've found a chance at getting better.**

 **So, here we have someone in need of spirit powers, an over concerned big sister, and a slightly sadistic Author who has way too much fun with this.**

 **enjoy!**

 **...WHEN HIS PARENTS BUILT A VERY STRANGE MACHINE**

* * *

Febe Mudrite hated how her day was going. "Guards, thief!" Those damning words had gotten the attention of the guards. What kind of library has guards? She ran, eyes darting around all the paths she could take. A left, a right, duck under that pipe. The guards and cops may have been taught to map out the city, but hiding from them for a year and a half tended to help in getting away. What troubled her was that they were keeping pace - just a block or so behind her. Febe's bare feet ached from running over rough hot sand for so long, and her elbow collided with a brick . A door she had never seen before came up to her right and she ran in, quietly swearing up a storm when thick stone slid shut.

She finally lost the guards—by getting lost herself. Bright brown eyes darted left and right in the ruins of some building, slowly adjusting to the light around her. Seeing nothing particularly threatening at the moment, the teen pressed her back against a wall and slid to the floor, resting her tired feet.

It was a wonderful time to think about how she had gotten in this predicament. When it came down to it, however, all Febe could wonder was "Who shouts 'guards, thief!' in the twenty-first century anymore? Especially a librarian." All of this over a simple book. She would have returned it had they not gotten the authorities on her, just as soon as she had finished reading.

It was a book about a pair of American siblings that looked nothing like each other thanks to their mixed parentage who happened to be descendants of pharaohs and thus powerful magicians. Febe found it fun to read and wanted to read more of it. Now it was too dark to read the thing - she tried - though she still clutched it in her hands.

Running a hand through her short wild hair, Febe tried to judge just how much sand and dirt had gotten into it now. Dusting off her hands as best as she could, the girl got to work on brushing the dirt out since there was nothing better to do. Absently, she wondered where exactly she had gotten herself lost in; just that she was underground in some old ruined building. There had been some kind of mechanism, a wall moving out of the way when she stumbled against one of the bricks. It probably shut itself by now; otherwise, the police would have tracked her down.

"I probably won't be able to find it without a torch or something anyways," she muttered to herself once her hair was reasonably clean. "Knowledge is precious," Febe rose to her feet once again and dusted off her pants and placed a hand on the wall as she walked. "But is it really worth so much to chase down a kid over a book?"

In the near lightless tunnel, Febe almost missed the symbol her hand brushed over as she walked, but the soft purple glow emanating therefrom made that hard. Glancing at where her hand was, Febe saw a vertical line with a curving line going through the top, and at the bottom was a six-pointed star made with lines. The hieroglyphic symbol of Seshat, goddess of wisdom and knowledge.

The section of wall a foot away from that hieroglyph sunk inward before sliding to the left and revealing a new room, torches that had to have been there for hundreds if not a thousand years lighting up with bright and lively fire, illuminating the room within.

Taking a quick peek inside, she saw that it was filled with scrolls and even books covered in dust and some cobwebs. Noting no rats or scorpions and happy to see some form of furniture and warmth and light, Febe walked inside and stretched, the light revealing her white pants and shirt to the empty room. "A hidden room in an underground chamber in a ruined building and the torches turned themselves on." The teen considered how much she could do at the moment, shrugged, and took in a deep breath. "If no one's going to announce themselves, I'm letting myself in."

* * *

After a night of consideration - and kicking Box Ghost back into the Zone three different times - Danny decided to fill Sam and Tuck in before he made a real decision on what to do. So, during lunch when they were at least fifteen feet away from everyone on a blanket that they kept in a tree, he went over what he had been told as Tucker devoured a hot pocket and Sam enjoyed her soymelt from home. "... and then they sent me straight to my bed. They left this in my pocket." he pulled out a tablet with a blue chrome case, a button layout standard to most tablets easily found. "I checked over the outside but didn't find any screws and I don't wanna tear apart a gift from Clockwork."

"Let's see here," Tucker made grabby hands and switched the device on as soon as he had it. The screen lit up with a display of a standard home screen for any mobile device, probably to look like something they could get for themselves. There was a number of app icons, but one, in particular, stood out by name. "Halfa profiles? There's a notification on here, Danny."

"I doubt it shows a complete list of everyone who's gonna become a halfa, but let's see what's there." What they saw was mild in surprise. There was a picture of Danny, both as Fenton and Phantom, with a list next to the pictures labeled physical appearance. Below that list was another on his personality and then a list of his abilities to date, marking him as a level seven point eight on the standard ghost power level grading scale. Basic yet detailed information. Further inspection showed that it had profiles similar for Danielle and Vlad, with full names and everything.

"Danielle prefers Elle now huh?" Sam nodded her approval at the quoted name in the profile. "I like it, more herself than Dani. According to this, she's developing healing abilities." Glancing over to Danny, the goth didn't miss the glint of fond pride in his eyes before a profile on someone they had never seen was brought up. She had dark skin, black hair, and eyes like shining clay. Above her picture was the word 'human' in bright red letters. Tucker scrolled through with interest.

"'Name: Febe Mudrite, location: sector thirty-six R, age fifteen. Febe has a love of knowledge that may one day lead her to great heights, or great danger. Such curiosity can lead one to secrets best left buried, and information lost to the ages that could benefit all of mankind. She has great potential, but life has pushed her away from opportunities to reach it. Still, she has her wit and common sense to guide her; things that no one can get by in life without.' sounds like someone we'd get along with."

"Yeah, if we can find her," Danny let out a sigh and shook his head. "Sector thirty-six R… sounds like something you'd find on a map. Check the other apps, they may have left a clue on where that means." Tucker switched back to the home screen and brought up a map of the earth. Noting a button on the side of the tablet that didn't fit the design of other models, the geek pressed it and was delighted to discover a holographic projector lens at the top of the device, displaying the map in the form of a globe now. "Huh… display sector thirty-six R." A grid covered the rotating earth and one square in particular - over Africa of course - took up the whole of the display.

"That's Egypt, like the entirety of Egypt." Sam frowned at the shown country as though it had done her some insult. "How are we supposed to get there in time to find a halfa and get back? I doubt either of you even have passports." Agreeing nods from the boys had her sighing and taking an angry last bite of her soymelt. "That's way too general a location anyways, how are we supposed to find her if we get there? Scour all of Egypt?"

"Hm… global view." once the hologram showed the planet itself again, Danny reached out and turned it until the North American continent was facing him. "I wonder… track halfa signatures." Three dots appeared on the map, though it zoomed out to show the South American continent as well. In the area of Amity Park, a red and blue dot flickered alternatively, whilst at the lower tip of Mexico, a green dot flashed. Checking the sector that Egypt was in, they found no dots to indicate a halfa was in the area. "That's the issue I think. It won't show us where she is until she becomes a halfa."

"We'll have to figure out a way to get to Egypt for now, though, right?" Tuck switched the display off before anyone eating outside could glance over and see. "After all, without a means to reach her, we can't do much for Febe. Especially not without knowing a bit of Egyptian or Arabic."

"We also need a place to meet up with her more regular a schedule than once or twice a month when ghosts could invade where she lives and cause major trouble for her." Danny let out a sigh and mulled over his thoughts, ideas being dismissed almost as soon as they were formed. "I think… I'm gonna try what Clockwork suggested."

"Asking the Spirit World herself for help?" Sam quirked a brow, interested by more than the severity of the situation. "How do you plan on doing that?"

"I'll figure that out today, I guess." The halfa shrugged and turned off the tablet, stuffing it into the pocket of his red and white jacket. "Right now, I'm going to focus on finishing my fries before Tuck steals them all."

* * *

After finding a clear enough table and wiping away as much of the dust as she could with her arm, she sat on the table and started reading. The adventure book, exciting as it was, paled compared to being in real-life ancient ruins and she found herself being distracted by curiosity. On one hand, she was in some old underground library full of cobwebs and likely arachnids waiting to inject her with deadly venom. On the other, she was in an ancient library full of lost knowledge from a time most likely forgotten, and with no one who was going to miss her if a scorpion or spider did decide to kill her and eat the corpse; she found that there was little to lose. A quick internal debate over the value of her life and the worth it would gain upon reading the scrolls around her, she dog-eared the page she was on, set the book down, and took a look around.

Surprisingly enough, there were enough torch-holders that even between the shelves the scrolls rested in were lit up enough for Febe to see. Pulling out a scroll at random, she took it back to her table and unfurled it gently, not wanting to damage the yellowed papyrus.

The page was littered with glyphs as she expected, but also symbols from a language the teen could not identify. If she had to guess, it was written in multiple languages in case anyone stumbled upon this archive and couldn't understand one form of writing. It had been years since Febe had been taught anything about hieroglyphs, and months since she had used that knowledge, but after a few moments of reading the symbols, the information became clearer.

The writing spoke of spirits and gods from another realm that touched the earthly plane, a world the mortals had been told was called the Duat. Apparently, the ancient men and women who met these gods and spirits had been gifted with knowledge on how to maintain a gateway into the duat so that the gods may visit as they please and bestow prosperity upon the Earth.

If the lack of gods and goddesses and spirits roaming free on the earth was any indication, Febe would say that either these people were highly delusional - if detailed - and their little cult died out from lack of response from the gods, or they were right, and the portal had somehow been shut or collapsed. As scary a thought as it was, she was honestly hoping that the latter was the truth.

Such a tale would make her life far more interesting, and if she could find a way to enter the duat, well, perhaps there was food and water there, right? So, she began looking through the scrolls to see if there was a set of instructions or something.

* * *

After school, the trio met up at Danny's house. The half ghost hero set loose a duplicate - he was proud to say that he could sustain at least two of them while in human form - to lead his parents out of the house. Now they were being briefed by Jazz, who was worried that they would have forgotten something in their 'GhostZone Exploration' kits. "Fenton E70 bazookas?"

"We only need one of those Jazz," Sam sighed and nodded, pulling out a miniaturized weapon from her bag.

Ignoring the comment, the redhead continued down her checklist, thankful that her father had made the Crammer. It made packing weapons so much easier. "Specter Deflectors programmed to ignore Danny's ectosignature?" Tucker called out an affirmative. "Homework and dinner in case you don't get back in time for it?"

"Considering the last time that we went in without our homework?" Danny chuckled, ignoring the glare Tucker shot him. "Check and check."

"We still made it in time to do our homework," the technogeek pointed out sourly. "We were just tired and inaccurate."

"Portable ghost shield generators?" Jazz pointedly ignored the statement about their homework, though her eye twitched a bit. She knew that any prodding would be met with a wall of 'we can handle it, Jazz' so she'd take what peace of mind she could get. "In case you need to deal with a swarm away from the Speeder."

"We have it all, Jazz." Danny let out a sigh and put a hand on his sister's shoulder, glad she didn't flinch from the chill anymore. "We'll be safe. We've got Tucker's know how, Sam's badassery and my powers, along with enough Fenton Tech to lay siege to the Zone." A shiver went up everyone's spines at the thought. A war on the dead would not go well for either side.

Jazz gripped her clipboard, letting the coarseness of the wood ground her and stall extra nervous thoughts that popped up from the words 'we got this.' "Did you remember the Crammer?" A swear from the geek rifling through the drawers for the shrink ray confirmed she was right and earned a grin and groan. "That's what I thought. Be careful, all of you. I'll see you when you get back."

After Sam did a quick rundown of her own on all the shrunken weapons, the trio hopped into the Specter Speeder and closed the hatch. The doors to the portal opened and the hover vehicle rose off of the ground with a soft hum. A wave from Danny and they were through the event horizon that had changed all of their lives.

In consideration of the incident of the Infimap, Danny had made sure to put down a better map of the Ghost Zone afterward, the equipment in the Speeder making that easier to do, especially with the help of Jazz. Using a marking distance of about five hundred meters, they had sectioned out the parts of the Zone closest to the Fenton Portal, as well as routes to the allied lairs and islands that team Phantom frequented.

Currently, they were following the route to the Far Frozen and doing homework at the same time. Well, Danny and Sam were doing homework, Tucker was using the space in the back to work on a project of his. "Thanks again for getting me the equipment for this, Sam. It should really help when we're on patrol."

"As long as you remember to make some for me, I'm happy to loan you the money. By the way, Danny." Waiting for the raven haired boy to look up, the violet-eyed teen tapped her eraser on her knee. "Do your parents have a patent on anything of theirs?" after a moment of deliberation, Danny shook his head, confirming her and Tucker's suspicions. "See, I didn't think so, considering that no one else is using hover technology like yours except Vlad, who is keeping it a secret for reasons I can't fathom."

"Did you look through Vlad's records to make sure that he hasn't patented any of it?"

"Yes, Tucker, and he hasn't. I don't know why, seeing as to how that would add to his wealth exponentially and he wants to be seen as the good guy by people who would benefit from the technology, but that's not my point."

"And what might your point be, Sam?" Danny was, as anyone who paid attention for more than ten minutes would agree, clueless when it came to certain things. One of those things was money. His lips dipped into a frown when his activist friend let out a sigh of frustration that was echoed by their tech savvy buddy.

"Dude, you have hover technology that no one but the Guys in White and Vlad have, access to a near-infinite source of clean renewable energy and know how to make weapons that discharge energy in a deadly fashion." Tucker set down his soldering iron for a moment and raised a brow at the halfa. "How are you guys not rich thanks to the fact that you have all of this, and even found proof of life after death?" Tucker waved at the emerald atmosphere surrounding them for emphasis. "Your family should be world renowned and rollin in dough."

"I… never thought about that." Danny tilted his head in thought and tried to remember a moment in his life when his parents showed any interest in getting money for their inventions and realized he couldn't. "Wow, you'd think that such overzealous scientists would want to publish their discoveries."

"Yeah, I would, if I didn't suspect that Vlad had something to do with it." Noting the indignant spark in her friend's eyes at the mention of his arch enemy, Sam pondered whether she should expand on that or not. Deciding that she had said too much to stop now, the goth internally shrugged and continued. "He might have sent out duplicates to overshadow your parents for long enough to plant the thought that there was no need to get anything out to the public."

Danny held up a hand in a silent plea for quiet and closed his eyes, needing a moment to think everything over. Tucker returned to the delicate process of soldering everything just right in the tiny chip that he was working on, the Speeder continued to follow its charted course while scanning for any ecto entities with known ectosignatures, and Sam kept her gaze focused on her clueless friend.

After several moments of silence - in which time Tucker finished soldering and turned to face his friends - Danny opened his eyes and looked between the two. "So you're saying that you think Vlad overshadowed my mom and dad to keep them from publishing their work in technology and clean energy, and I should convince them to do it? Why?"

"In these places where halfas are gonna start popping up," Tucker answered and adjusted his glasses, "we have to assume that the portals that'll change them will be stable and self-sustaining, unlike the usual natural portals that pop up everywhere at random."

"And if that's true, knowing our luck it will be, the people in those areas will need more than some halfas that need training to keep them safe from any malicious ghosts." Sam pulled out her ecto-pistol as an example. "Halfas are good and all, but humanity needs to be able to rely on itself for defense."

"And if the Fentons are the ones regulating and distributing that defense, then not only will Vlad not be able to tamper with the inventions as much as he would have the opportunity to do if he were the one distributing things." Tucker pulled out his tablet, one that he had built himself with parts from the latest products thanks to lots of begging and a loan from Sam that he was paying off by helping with her activist rallies. "By the way, during our check of the Speedster, I ran a sweep for any broadcasting equipment and found at least thirty pings throughout your house. He's spying on you big time dude."

"I'll have to remove that surveillance equipment before talking to mom and dad about the whole business thing." Danny glared down at his homework, sorely tempted to set the nearly finished paper aflame. "I think I'll leave the portal out of the whole 'revelation to the world' thing, since I'd rather not have paparazzi swarming my house. If I can I'll convince mom and dad to do this quietly-"

"That's a horrible idea, actually." Sam let out a soft sigh. "If your parents quietly introduce their clean energy into a country basically run by big business like the electric and oil companies, someone besides Vlad would target them in one way or another. The whole world needs to be notified that there's clean energy, for a cheap price, so that we can get people off of fossil fuels without risk of being silenced by corporations." As much as she hated to admit it, Sam found herself feeling grateful for her parents grooming her to take over the family business. Those lessons were popping back up in the back of her head as she looked for any holes in their plans.

"Alright then… destroy the cameras, figure out how to get mom and dad to go public with everything but their favorite invention, and figure out this whole halfa thing. Got it." Danny let out a sigh of relief when he saw snow floating around the speedster. He stood as Sam and Tucker put on their jackets, transforming into his ghostly half. "For now, though, there's something I already have sorta planned out to deal with all of this halfa stuff." The Speeder rocked, and the trio let out a collective sigh. "And shoo away a ghost. Sam, you have better aim, Tucker you have better driving skills."

Sam glowered at the shot at her driving skills and pointedly had the Crammer pointed in Danny's direction when unshrinking her rifle. "Watch it ghost boy, you might forget to compliment with those thinly veiled quips."

* * *

They said necessity was the mother of invention. Febe said boredom was the father. With her lack of anything better to do - reading fiction lost out in the argument against testing out magic - the teen had found some inkwells that had somehow not dried up, and a scroll detailing the process of opening up a proper gateway. At the moment, she was simply drawing out the possible design on a piece of spare papyrus she had found, and reading aloud. The silence was rather disturbing, and even if it was only her own voice, some kind of sound was needed.

After several lines of what seemed to be ritual rites, she found something different, written in three different sets of alphabet instead of two. "I beseech the mother Nut, the father Geb, the gambler Khonsu, and the Pharaoh Ra, to grant me passage into the duat, so that our worlds may join together as they are meant to. May the two become one once again."

As she spoke, a gentle breeze from nowhere picked up, and the light of the torches slowly changed. Brilliant scarlet became rich violet and gold. The circle of symbols that Febe had drawn gave off a soft glow, growing brighter with each word and the air around her warmed up considerably. These things happened all too slowly for her to notice, and too quickly for the girl to retreat from before bright golden light tinged with green filled her vision, and the brush in her hand nearly snapped from her grip.

Her vision was filled with a dark blue sky filled with countless stars and her breath left her lungs

 _The soft and comforting voice of her mother when she sang her to sleep_

Each individual part of her bones cracked and shattered into nothing

 _The safety and warmth of her father's embrace_

A cold and harsh light filled her vision, green and silver, and violet, ice in her veins

 _The joy that she felt upon seeing her baby brother's face for the first time._

She saw the sun, getting closer and closer, it's golden light bathing her body and burning it at the same time until there was nothing left.

 _Tales of ancient times that her mother and father told to_ Febe _and her brother, warm and comfort and love._

Febe Mudrite died.

* * *

 **Wow, I killed a character in the same chapter that i introduced her in. Kit and Kas are wearing off on me, i swear.**

 **FriTik: why thank you! i apologize that you had to wait even this long**

 **Invader Johnny: Oh he knows, that's why he did it in his head. Jazz has yet to connect the two events together.**

 **Moonmunirah97: you are welcome *offers tissue***

 **Guest: I won't say a thing on that matter, not a Damn Thing**

 **Halfa: all halfas must suffer, didn't you know that? I got this behaviour from my sisters Kit and Kas, blame them. Also, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

 **so, my lovelies, the next chapter of The Summoning is long as fuck, and the same can be said of the next chapter for this. guess which'll come out first.**

 **i would love quesitons on Febe. It would help with the whole... character building thing to get questions.**

 **I'LL SEE YOU NEXT SUMMER**

 **LONG LIVE KING PHANTOM**


	4. History Lessons and Realizations

**HELLO FRIENDS! This is everyone's favorite narrator, Goliath D Pyroson comin to you from somewhere in the Breach (those of you nerds who know what i'm talking about, a cookie for you) to tell you more about that timeline where there's some halfas popping up all over the worlds! by the way, when I say "world" in this fic - or any of my other ones - i mean the dimension that's being referenced, as each dimension spans the same amount of space, but in sepearate folds of reality. with that out of the way**

 **IT WAS DESIGNED TO VIEW A WORLD UNSEEN**

* * *

"I only need it for a bit. I'll mark the location with one of my probes and then come back, ok?" Danny offered. "More halfas are going to be made and I need to find a place to train them." Frostbite was a forgiving spirit, and had a great deal of faith in Danny, but the yeti was aware the teen had plans that were far easier said than done. Those tended to be the simpler plans. "I swear on my name and my blood, both red and green, that I shall return the map to you, Frostbite of the Far Frozen." The blue robed spirit nodded and gave Danny a pat on the back that nearly toppled him over.

"Then I suppose I shall see you later today, Great One. however, I would advise that you not swear such oaths lightly. The Spirit World does not take them lightly." The serious expression on his face reminded the young halfa of Pandora who had said something rather similar. "Safe travels, Great One."

Danny nodded and took a deep breath, reaching into his pocket to check and make sure that there were three probes with him, and opened up the infimap. "Take me to a safe place for halfas." an aura of silver and green enveloped both the map and its holder before he was zooming off.

Frostbite turned to the humans that had stayed behind with a raised brow and friendly grin. "And what can I do for you, friends of the Great One?" They always had some strangely specific thing in mind when they stuck behind.

"If it's not too much trouble, can I take a look at your labs, Frostbite?" Tucker held up the project he had been working on with a grin. "I've been working on something and hoped that Freeze might be able to give me his opinion on them, and maybe a bit of help."

"I was actually hoping to take a look at your library again since Tucker hardly needs my help on his project and I was hoping to get a bit of research done." The yeti chief nodded and the goth walked off on her own, knowing the way well.

* * *

Sand, warm and gritty and all over the place. This was the first thing that registered to Febe, along with the feeling of something ...else. It was everywhere, like the sand but more so, and it was alive and powerful and alien and so different from what she knew. Opening her eyes, the teen saw golden sands and an orange sky. In the distance, she could see hazy, golden structures. Looking down at herself, she screamed. Dark brown flesh had turned light blue. She prodded it; yes, her hand. Her white clothes had turned black, and surrounding her body was a dull purple light. Getting to her feet, she saw the only splash of color in her outfit, the red shoes that her father had gotten her, was now a glaringly bright green.

She started to hyperventilate only to realize no air was coming into her lungs, not even the dry, dusty hot-enough-to-burn oxygen of the desert.

She couldn't breathe.

Her chest was tight and motionless except for a frantic beating in the center of her chest where her heart wasn't. Her fingers pressed into her wrist deep enough to bruise but no throb of life answered. No pulse. She checked and checked and checked until her wrist should have been blue and black and didn't find one.

 _She couldn't breathe_ -

Febe opened her mouth wide and tried gasping in as much air as possible but it didn't work, nothing came in, her lungs were still and motionless in her chest. Speaking, that would help, it had to! "Can't breathe, why can't I breathe, how am I talking if I'm not breathing? My chest is too still there's no air going in." Perhaps it didn't help. Now she was hyperventilating without the ventilation, and that thrumming in her chest sped up. "That's not a pulse, I don't have one anymore," she whined, head in her shaking hands. "I can't feel my heart anymore… do I even have one anymore?" That was the perfect question to ask herself, of course.

"This doesn't make any sense, there's no blood flow, my heart either isn't there or it's moved to where it's not supposed to be, and I'm talking but _not breathing!_ " Febe could feel tears flowing down her cheeks, but she didn't care. Taking the mental equivalent of a breath, she tried to focus. "I'm not breathing, I don't have a pulse, every color on my person has become its opposite and I feel physically fine. What's wrong with this picture?" Turning her gaze to the golden structures in the distance she tried to inhale, but upon failing that she screamed. The sound was continuous and filled with all of her worry and despair and the longer it lasted the worse she felt.

Time passed, minutes, hours, she didn't know. Finally, when Febe's throat burned, though her lungs didn't, and her scream turned to sobs. "I… that damned book and those stupid scrolls!" She had finally and truly run out of luck, her curiosity had proven to be as lethal most said it could be. "I'm in the Duat... the land of Spirits and Gods. I died." She sobbed into her hands for an endless moment. purple light reflecting off of the golden sands that twisted and churned around her like the sea before a storm.

After a sorrowful few minutes that felt like forever had passed, realization struck her. "Mom, dad, Amir… I can see them again…" that was a good thing, right? Sure she was… but she could see her family again! Rising to her feet, Febe brushed the sand out of her hair, which had also gone from the darkest brown to an almost arctic blue.

Looking up Febe saw that it was not as the legends told of, though various depictions might have warped the reality of the situation over millennia. There was still what looked like a large settlement in the distance, and while no sun was visible in the sky just yet, it was just as hot as the real desert. There was no point in letting her soul burn in the sands of the afterlife, so Febe got to her feet, steeled her nerves, and marched on, the brush that she had been holding in her death now waiting almost weightlessly in her pocket.

* * *

Danny found the sensation of being dragged along by the infimap exhilarating the first time he had done it, but this time was different. Almost as if the map's mindset had changed. When he noticed the trip was slowing down, he looked around to see he was nowhere near… anything. It was literally the middle of nowhere Only a purple island floated in the distance that he was being pulled towards. After a moment, he realized it was less an island and more of a continent.

He sailed over a jungle of purple leafed trees the smallest reaching over three stories, bright blue bushes and red grass where he could see between the giant leaves, and the ruins of what looked to be an ancient city or three, all about as large as Skulker's island. The buildings were made of stone, metal, wood, and crystals. Rivers cut through the land and fell over the edges of the continent, or flowed along the channels to other rivers, going around the land mass like blood vessels. Looking forward the halfa saw tall black mountains with violet clouds surrounding their peaks, various colors of flora. A flock of birds, huge compared to what he normally saw on earth, soared through the sky like they owned the land - if so Danny wondered where the map was leading him since any place inhabited by potentially hostile ghosts would be unsafe for new halfas.

When he looked again, he could see animals roaming around everywhere. The sound of monkeys howling filled the air every few minutes. Snakes and sloths covered the trees he was flying through, jaguars and panthers ran after antelope and other animals Danny couldn't identify even after watching that documentary Sam had him watch.

Finally, Danny noticed a large drop in speed when he was brought over the largest of the cities yet. Everything was ivory wood or ebony stone, metal and crystals twisted in as though all grown at the same time naturally, into the shapes of buildings with windows everywhere, most likely since all of the inhabitants could fly. There were buildings with architecture from nearly every culture in the human world and several other things about it all he had never seen before. The city had gates at twelve points of the huge wall encircling it, though one gate had it's doors ripped completely off, and he assumed the others were in similar states of disrepair.

In the center of the ancient metropolis was a domed building that looked older than he could even begin to guess. More than half of the building was in ruins, the intact half leading up to a castle. Castle was the simplest way that Danny could put it. A Greek acropolis stood tall at once side, one section of the building made from stone so dark green he assumed it was black at first glance roofed with silver ingots, hammered bronze doors big enough to fly a helicarrier into easily, a palace-like structure that Danny recognized as Egyptian in style from the time Tucker had been possessed by the staff of his ancestor and so many more styles of ancient architectural styles blended with ages thereafter.

The map pulled him down to massive front doors of the castle fit for gods and curled itself up as soon as his boot touched the golden pavement. At first, the young halfa stood there in awe at the marvel of construction and monument to whoever had once lived there before noticing the less than glamorous damage. It was still awe inspiring in its diversity and grandness, but there were obvious signs of its fall as well. There were cracks along the walls, pieces of stone and marble and metal that were missing or scattered about the lawn - which stretched out for around three hundred meters if the young scientist were to guess - and the gates of the very building itself were in pieces on the inside.

"Okay," Danny muttered to himself as he floated forward, not wanting to set off any traps that might be on the ground. "I'm in the dead husk of an ancient city of spirits from what could be ten or twelve thousand years ago, if not more, in the middle of nowhere so far from my neck of the Ghost Zone that I wouldn't be able to find it without the infimap. This probably counts as safe as far as being hidden counts."

* * *

When Febe made it to the settlement she had seen from miles away, she found distance truly did make a difference. Even though she was still at least a mile away, the teen could see buildings rising easily three hundred meters in height, probably more. The bricks building them were carved from carnelian, glowing in the sunless daylight. Mosaics covered the walls of each building, which resembled a cross between an ancient temple, and a modern mansion. Her father would have been so excited to see such a marvel. "He probably was when he came here… lovely, I'm depressed again."

After a few more moments of walking and doing her best not to think about her death or her family - they had to have made it to the city, there was no way that her parents wouldn't make it there and her brother never left their mother's side - Febe was hit with a realization. she was now a spirit. Spirits could fly. Facepalming, the teen closed her eyes and thought about the alien force she felt still flowing all around her and the aura of purple light covering her form and imagined the latter as an extension of herself. The power around her intensified, senses the teen was not used to having lighting up and a tingle ran over her body. She felt the force around her and pushed away from the ground in her mind.

At first, nothing happened. That was something she expected, no skill was learned on the first try. So, she pushed harder, reaching out with her new senses towards that purple light and willing her body away from the ground. A moment later cold fire spread over her brain, the ground fell away from her feet, and Febe opened her eyes to see herself floating five meters in the air. Leaning back, she floated in that direction and had an idea. She did a flip, and a laugh bubbled out of her nonfunctional lungs. "I'm flying… I'm flying!" Febe cheered and threw her arms in the air, going a bit higher and backward before she steadied herself. "Right. To the city I go." Tilting forward, she pushed against the air and sailed towards the walled city of golden stone in the distance.

* * *

The castle felt even larger on the inside than it had on the outside. The floor was nothing but mosaic after mosaic of events and ghosts that Danny could only wonder about, though after the first few hundred hallways and intersecting rooms, the halfa found a pattern to everything. And so, he followed along the path of destruction. The whole of the place was somewhat intact but also decaying from the millennia it must have stood uninhabited, yet there was a clear difference between the natural wearing of Time and the signs of a battle. If he looked closely at the walls, Danny saw some dark green spots that didn't match the designs. Upon realizing what those splatters most likely were, he stopped looking at the walls.

The further in he went, the more precise the signs of battle were. Lines cut deep into stone, sand littered around the halls, puddles and even still frozen ice around the edges of doorways, scorch marks that never faded. The battle had to have lasted hours, if not days with how large the place was. As Danny flew in faster, following some unidentifiable tug on his core, the walls were less stable, the air felt thicker and the ceiling even had holes in it. A sickly sweet scent, like lemon scented cleaning products but stronger, filled the air mixed dust.

It took him half an hour from the point at which entire rooms could be seen through collapsed walls, filled with debris, but eventually Danny got to where the feeling in his core was strongest. A soft humming sound emanated from the center of the room with no visible source. Floating up to the actual center of the huge room, large enough to hold his, Sam and Tucker's houses with yards included, the halfa saw the room had to have been the last stand.

Bones, pools of ectoplasm, scorch marks, claw marks, ice, sand, cracked and crushed pillars and columns, dead plants, broken weapons, a statue with a wild, frightened look on their face, body contorted in a way no sculptor would have carved, likely a spirit turned to stone. This room had seen the last fight of the country or at least the biggest. Danny was glad he didn't have to see that fight. Upon closer inspection, he saw one thing that hadn't been touched.

Carved into the floor in the middle of the room was a ring of symbols, untouched. There were twelve total, outlined with a perfect circle and separated into differently colored sections of stone. Above the electric blue gear symbol floated a familiar face, and Danny descended to Clockwork's level silently. Neither spoke for a while, as Danny took in all the information around him and tried to figure out what could have caused all of this.

"Two hundred thousand years," the Timekeeper finally spoke, and the half ghost turned all of his attention to them. "After all of this time, Boreus' ice still hasn't melted. He did say that he could make sculptures that would outlast him…" they trailed off and gestured to the ice Danny had noticed but said no more.

After another thirty seconds, Danny could take the silence no more and gestured at the room in general. "What is all of this? What happened here? Where am I? What does this have to do with halfas?" Those and a million other questions were racing through his head, but Clockwork offered him a cookie, and he knew that the spirit was going to only answer the questions they wanted to.

"In order, this is the palace of the Council, a war, the sovereign nation of Alomora, and I'll get to that at the end." They waited for Danny to take a bite, a small smile on their face, and waved a hand, transporting them above the ginormous palace. "This continent you have been guided to was once the home to almost every spirit who interacted with the human world. Most of the ones who survived the aftermath of the war were seen as gods and titans by Humanity, some were called angels, and others primordials.

Daniel, do you know the difference between a Spirit and a Ghost?" They turned to the halfa with a raised brow, blue face full of wrinkles. "Or have neither Pandora nor Frostbite told you yet?" Danny shook his head in confusion.

"Aren't those the same thing? Spirit, ghoul, specter, ghost, apparition, poltergeist. Different words for the same entity?" That's what his parents had always told him, and the ghosts that he had encountered had never said anything about there being a difference. His brows furrowed in concentration as he tried to remember any instance where spirit and ghost were terms used as differing terms. "Most ghosts I meet call this dimension the Ghost Zone, but Pandora, you and Frostbite have all called it the Spirit World. Why?"

"The long and short of it," Clockwork said, gesturing to the continent around them. "Is that a spirit was born in this world, this dimension, without any pre-existence beyond their preincarnations." Danny opened his mouth to ask about reincarnation but opted for taking another bite when Clockwork held a finger to their lips. "A ghost, regardless of what world or planet they came from, is a being that died traumatically and was given a second chance at life by the Spirit Mother. Some cannot remember their past lives and deaths, like skulker who was blown to bits by the land mine of his greatest rival." The image of a man with the same build as Skulker flashed through Danny's head, the following image making him regret the cookies in his mouth. "Others cannot forget, no matter how hard they try."

"The relevance it has to the situation at hand, Daniel, is the fact that halfas are not a half ghost as most believe them to be." Danny quirked a brow at that, slowly putting down the third to last cookie on the plate. "You are a half spirit. This is why you are able to grow in power so quickly, and why you can deviate from a path provided by an obsession. Even Vlad can rise above his inner demon if pointed in the right direction.

"What better place for a new race to rise than in the place where the first Spirit kingdom fell?" Danny took a step back and sat down on air, taking a few breaths to help digest what he was being told. Clockwork, being rather polite in their revelation, waited patiently for Danny to speak up.

"So, I'm supposed to bring the halfas here so that they can learn about their powers in a safe, abandoned environment while trying to avoid knocking down all the nice scarred history around here? Clockwork, this place is miles away from my place alone, how am I gonna convince these people to drop everything in their lives and fly through an alien dimension to a continent torn away by a war to learn about powers that were thrust upon them?"

"Search the halls Daniel, you shall find the answers in exploration." They held up their staff and cobalt light covered the artifact. "I shall point you in the right direction, since you've been so polite while I told my story. _Ex tempore. Redde_." Those last words echoed with power and as the end of the staff met the ground, blue light burst outwards, sweeping over the whole room and out through the palace. When Danny opened his eyes, the room was different.

The damage from the ancient battle had been erased, the only sign that it had been there at all the ice that had stood for millennia, apparently untouched by Clockwork's power. The floor and walls were smooth, seats lined the circle of symbols and a table stood between them. The walls were six rich colors that blended seemingly at random all throughout, forming captivating patterns. Above the doors that lead out of the central room were symbols like the ones on the ground, and Danny found a blue holographic arrow pointing towards the quill symbol, but no Clockwork. "Well, that's a clue if I've ever seen one…" Picking up the arrow, since there was little chance he couldn't, Danny trekked further into the palace that still echoed the wear of war.

* * *

Once she had gotten down how to stay on a relatively straight flight path, Febe made it to the city walls within around fifteen minutes. She thanked the gods that she had found the gates as well, because with how large the city was from above, it couldn't have been less than two hours worth of searching if she had to check the whole perimeter. Apparently, thanking the gods woke up lion statues, since a pair of seven meters tall, bronze statues resting at the sides of the golden gate doors opened their eyes and rose to their feet. Both roared at the young spirit and one strode closer to sniff at her, Febe's body froze. That paralyzing fear shut down her muscles, mind and flight control sending her falling onto the sand which felt slightly more comfortable than hitting a brick wall. The lioness' twitching nose loomed over her head.

Whatever test they had been giving her, she must have passed. The lionesses sat back on their haunches and the golden gates slowly swung open. If she was still breathing, Febe would have sighed in relief. The moment of calm was brief, however, as a pair of violet furred cheetahs that were the size of a pickup truck with blue dots padded out and stared down at her. After a full minute of staring, one cheetah leaned down with its maw open, and as Febe turned to run away, snatched her up by the back of her collar like a mother would her kitten. The pair of felines turned into the city and started walking, the one with its mouth free rumbling out words, officially freaking Febe out. "You shall be presented before lady Seshat."

* * *

 **Invader Johnny: I'm not sure why you felt that way, but thanks for tellin me friend.**

 **KingStarfire: As i said in The Summoning, _my_ clockwork is genderless unless you count Time as a gender. as for all those halfa suggestions... one of those people i chose, but i'm not saying whom. i will say that i'm not using any of those but i like your ideas.**

 **OK SO, Febe isn't _dead_ dead, she's a halfa. but, ya know, Danny fell back into the human world, and thus went back to human form defaultly. Febe woke up on the other side, with ectoplasm surrounding her. I have fun things to do here in this story, and I've already chosen the people who will be halfas. some of them anyways.**

 **HAIL TO PHANTOM, THE HEAD OF HALFAS!**


	5. Goddess of Knowledge oh and War

**Greetings and Beinvenue, dear readers! I bring to you the next chapter in the life of Danny, Tucker, Sam and the halfas around the world. last time, danny got a little history lesson, Febe woke up in the spirit world and found her way to some form of civilization, and Clockwork still has a headache from dealing with their friends and responsibilities to Deal with the shennanigans of said friends. here we have still more focus on Febe than Danny but... yeah i have no excuse, I just get sucked into the Febe story, ok? yeesh.**

 **anyway**

 **ON WITH THE SHOW, YEAH?**

 **...WHEN IT DIDN'T QUITE WORK, HIS FOLKS, THEY JUST QUIT**

* * *

What Danny found was actually something he expected, to a point. From what he could tell after deviating from his assigned path every few hundred feet, he was in the section of the palace that pandered to goddesses and gods of knowledge and wisdom all of that. A library was something he expected. The size of the library, however, was a bit of a shock.

Along each wall and in perfectly lined up columns stood row after row of shelves. In the front, there were scrolls, but as the rows progressed further back, books could be found. Each record had its own aura, each a different color that lit up the room in lieu of an actual light source on the ceiling, though one did happen to be there. The carpet of the floor was a muted violet that went well with the navy walls of the chamber. After a few meters up, guard rails lined the edge of another floor.

"How did anyone keep from getting lost in here?" As he asked, Danny rose above the shelves on the first floor and found himself reminded of when he was first taken to a library. The shelves there seemed to stretch on forever, and Jazz had to stick with him or he'd have gotten lost. Here, there were at least five levels above him that he could make out individually, and the only real indicator that it ended was the domed ceiling painted with the mark of a quill, a brush, and a pen forming a triangle. It was hard to even see the walls, looking in any direction really, and that was after Danny focused only on his vision.

"Well," he mumbled, floating up towards the center of the section of the library he was in. "This is confusing. I could use a book or something, sure, but on what? How to open up portals to the earth?" There was a thrumming in the air, almost like a heartbeat, as all the records of knowledge lit up and several flew towards him. "Uh-huh… Ok, I need to be more specific than that apparently… " How he was able to read any of these titles was beyond him. Maybe spirits had the ability to read their own language or something. "I need to be able to access the portals that are opening themselves, and be able to get to the part of the Spirit World they lead to… How to access portals at a distance?"

Three dull orange books flew to his arms, the brightest glowing of them all tugging him out of the library once he grabbed hold of it. "I'm being pulled by sentient objects all the time today. Clockwork must be laughing at me, if they have the energy to after restoring an entire kingdom sized palace to this condition." Danny didn't even need to make any of the turns, the books seemed to know where they were going perfectly well. A door with a spiral of various colors on it opened up for him and Danny was treated to quite the sight.

* * *

Febe shouldn't have been surprised by the ancient architecture surrounding her, and she wasn't. Instead, she was amazed. The temples that she had read about with her mother and visited with her father on his archeological digs were all around her, in shimmering and pristine carnelian unaffected by the sand and sun, glyphs carved into the structures with what looked to be peridot stones. Every structure was amazingly tall, even what she assumed to be the homes of other spirits based on the movement of blue-skinned people and animals that seemed to have grown to unnatural sizes and pigments.

As amazing as it was to see everything, Febe was still rather terrified by the cheetah whose jaws were less than an inch away from her neck. Whenever she asked where they were taking her, the cat without an occupied mouth simply told her "to lady Seshat." Truly, informative and helpful cats. They soon approached a building that Febe could somehow recognize immediately as a library. It hardly had anything different about it from the other temples beyond different glyphs covering it, but something inside of her - could that be called a heart or was it her soul - told her this was a place of knowledge.

The doors to it opened up and the pair of cheetahs walked in like it was home, passing through rows upon rows of shelves, more than Febe could imagine. The sight was breathta- awe-inspiring. With all of the red lighting, however, it was also a bit terrifying. Looking down at herself, Febe could definitely see the layer of distorted purple light around her when compared to all of the light in the room they walked past.

After journeying through a handful of hallways decorated in glyphs, a door opened up ahead bearing the hieroglyph representing the goddess of knowledge herself, and Febe was grateful that she had no breath to catch.

All around the room were shelves holding scrolls, books, and tools for construction and measurement from across the ages. In one corner resided a table with binoculars and telescopes of all sorts, papers rolled up in piles on another table across from it. Carved into the walls were designs for buildings and rooms and other things that made no sense to the young girl, but still filled her with a sense of wonder. The most incredible thing in the room, however, lie at its center.

There sat a throne, with four legs shaped like those of a feline, paws included. The arms came out of the back as though grown, forming the shapes of the heads of cats - cheetahs, if Febe had to guess. The back itself rose up to a curve that was crested with a seven pointed symbol almost like a star. The more impressive thing about the throne itself, however, was that instead of gold or bronze it was made from the very fabric of space itself. Dots littered the inky black structure like stars, illuminating the room with their barely restrained brilliance. Upon that throne sat the most intimidating woman the young girl had ever seen.

Dark blue hair cascaded over the shoulders of the golden skinned figure with a sharp face and deep violet eyes that shined with authority and wisdom gathered over countless years. She wore a dress leopard skin dress with slits that went up to her knees, tied at the waist with a red sash and collared with rings of green, red and blue. Around her wrists and ankles were orange bands lined with glyphs that Febe had never seen before, all inscribed in gold. In her left hand was a large stylus that she tapped against her throne in an impatient rhythm.

What it was, she couldn't tell, but Febe felt something in the room that set her on edge - likely one of the things that came with being a spirit. The alien presence that she had felt all around her in the desert had changed to one that was almost angry.

Once the cheetahs were within five meters of the woman who couldn't be any less than fourteen feet tall, they bowed their heads, lowering Febe until her feet just barely touched the ground. The purple big cat that wasn't holding a frightened teenage hostage in its jaws spoke reverently. "Lady Seshat, we bring to you one with an unusual scent about her."

The goddess focused her gaze upon the girl and held out her free hand. The cheetah opened his maw and instead of gravity taking hold over her like expected, Febe felt as well as saw a golden light wrap around her blue skin and some force pulled her higher into the air. Once she was at eye level with the goddess, Febe tried to straighten up, all of her muscles tense with fear under this otherworldly being's scrutiny. To her horror, she was unable to control which direction her limbs moved, her arms spread out as Seshat examined her.

" _A unique specimen indeed,_ " the golden figure finally spoke, nodding her approval to the waiting felines. Her voice held an odd distortion, as though she were speaking through a wall of water and from the other side of a cave. " _You may leave us Rigel, Saiph. I shall call for you later._ " The cheetahs bowed once more before taking their leave of the room. A flick of the stylus in the goddess' hand and the doors shut themselves. " _Tell me, girl, what is your name?_ "

At first, little more than a squeak came out of Febe's mouth, as she had noted that the goddess' nails were painted in a far darker red than any liquid but blood. Under Seshat's intense and demanding gaze, however, she felt obligated to answer. "M-my n-name is Febe Mudrite, your holiness," she managed to say with what she would consider to be a spectacular minimum of stuttering. She kept her eyes on the green rings of the giant woman's dress, avoiding those giant pools of violet that seemed to be boring into her soul.

" _Febe Mudrite,_ " Seshat echoed in a curious tone. " _That name sounds familiar. How did you come to find yourself in the Duat, girl?_ "

After a moment of hesitation, Febe tried to steel herself and exhaled. "I got lost in ruins I didn't know existed and found a room with torches and scrolls. The scrolls-"

" _Look me in the eye when you speak to me, child,"_ the goddess interrupted, earning a visible jolt from the teen held in her power. " _I find it a bit irritating when others speak to my clothing rather than my face._ "

"Y-yes ma'am," Febe nodded and forced herself to look up. "The scrolls told stories of gods and spirits, as well as a way to enter the Duat." When the glowing amethysts that had yet to so much as blink were too much to stare at, the teen found herself staring at the point above the goddess' nose, just between her eyebrows. "In my curiosity, I wrote down a logical way of reopening this gateway, and I found myself …" she paused, a lump forming in her throat at the thought of admitting she was dead out loud. "As I am now after reading the scripture aloud."

" _Curiosity killed the cat, yes?_ " Seshat chuckled to herself and hummed in thought. " _Though, you are not dead, child. Not entirely._ " Febe's eyes widened in confusion, curiosity, and fear of the further unknown. She looked up at the knowledge goddess and saw not only her raised hand, but the dagger like teeth that showed themselves when Seshat spoke. " _You are a unique hybrid of Spirit and Human, one of the few that exist today, and as such I wish to study you. In exchange, I shall teach you about the land of spirits, and allow you housing with your family._ " The decision was very clearly out of Febe's hands, but it was favorable to being vaporized for defying the natural order of life and death. " _Rigel shall take you to your family and tomorrow you shall be escorted back to my dwelling."_

The teen bowed deeply as soon as she felt control of her muscles return, the beating in her chest reaching alarming speeds. "It is an honor, my goddess." The violet cheetah was called in and Febe was released from the golden light that wrapped around Seshat's being like a second skin. As she was lead out of the chamber, the teen's mind was racing with possibilities as to how she could possibly still be alive when she didn't have a pulse, didn't breathe, and even her hunger had vanished.

* * *

The room Danny found himself in was at least half as huge as the library and covered in circles of ever size he could imagine. There were orbs of light dangling in the air and spirals of chalk, ink, graphite and other substances that he didn't remember the names of marked the solid surfaces around the room. Tables and counters rose from the orange stone seamlessly, and above most hovered orange holographic keyboards and screens. "Looks like NASA mission control," Danny muttered, floating closer to the center of the room, "except in orange, and with funky discoballs made of light."

The book that had brought him there opened up for the halfa to read, but attempting to do so had gave the teen a headache. "Lovely, relying on an internal translator leads to headsplitting migraines." Looking around the room, Danny sagged his shoulders and touched down on the floor. Most of the glowing orbs faded out of existence, and the halfa rolled his eyes. "And apparently there are several places with a clearance level restriction. I'll have to learn a whole nother language just to understand this place… well, Esperanto wasn't so bad so hopefully this isn't too different."

Letting out a sigh, Danny pulled one of the probes he had brought with him out of his pocket, activated the silver and green sphere with the press of a button and tossed it to the center of the large circular room he found himself in. In a whir of mechanical noise, an oblong object hovered a meter above the floor pulsating with green light. A check of the radar on his wrist showed that it was broadcasting properly and Danny collected the books in his arms. "I'll need a while to sort through whatever language this is, and I don't have the Time right now… or do I?" Taking a deep breath, Danny concentrated on the ectoplasm around him and focused on the shape of his own body. A moment later and another ghost teen was floating in front of him. "I should do this to avoid skipping class."

"Would this technically count as taking a class?" Both Dannys considered the copy's question before shrugging.

"Independent study sounds more appropriate in this case," he decided and floated off into the central space of the first floor. "I'll leave you to study up on ancient languages and stuff while I return this map to Frostbite." Pulling out the second probe, the halfa tossed it to the center of what he assumed was the meeting hall, and flew off through the halls to the entrance, letting the Infimap's odd semi-consciousness guide him. Once he was outside, Danny flew to the edge of the city and placed a probe above one of the wrecked gates. "Looks like even Clockwork has limits. The rest of this city is still in ruins it looks like."

Satisfied that he had successfully marked this lost continent, the halfa rose up above the treetops and held the infimap above his head. "Thank you, infimap. Take me back to the Far Frozen." He was encased in the bright blue light of the map and the woosh of hitting what might have been supersonic speeds hit him dead in the face.

* * *

When you lived near Washington DC, you knew damn well the government kept several things hidden from the country. It was more than a 'what if' that everyone assumed to be a highly probable theory, it was a fact. When you actually live _in_ the capital of the US, you knew how to avoid the guys in black suits that looked like they saw you and everyone wearing bright colors as a threat. Unfortunately for Hugh Gutermuth, nobody knew of one government group in particular, and not everyone had the brains to avoid red tape. Or in this case, green.

It had been a regular bike ride up to his friends' house just outside the city when he spotted lines of green tape printed with the words 'Stay Out' all around the trees. Deciding that he should find out who was disturbing the beauty of nature, the lean young man parked his bike at the curb and ducked under the tape. It wasn't for several minutes, and yards thanks to his long strides, that the brunette heard an odd beeping sound, like the metal detector wands at an airport. The smell of bleach assaulted his nostrils and the teen moved to hide behind some bushes.

When none of the sounds showed any sign of approaching his position, Hugh did his best to sneak around to the nearest tree trunk and continue on in his version of a stealthy manner. This mostly involved lightly moving his feet over the ground until he found a patch without a branch or twig or leaf to crunch. Around fifteen minutes later, he was surrounded by several of the beeping noises and bleach and some lemon scented cleaning product filled the air.

Pulling back a handful of leaves blocking his view in the form of a bush, Hugh was greeted with the disturbing sight of men and women in glaringly white business suits holding what looked like toys based on a sci-fi film, wandering around the forest. It seemed like they were searching for something. There were even firearms on them, though they also looked like realistic toys. Chrome, white, and green. "That is the worst color scheme a cult could have," he muttered to himself. Briefly, the teen pondered heading further into the woods to investigate. However, when the beeping got louder and the air began to feel thicker, Hugh decided that living was more important than uncovering a new conspiracy. He might start a blog about all this.

When he turned to stealthily walk back to his bike, the lemony scent got stronger and one of those Guys in White turned towards him. "Fuck." Instead of surrender and endure the lecture his family would surely give him for invading a red tape area - or get sacrificed in some weird cultist ritual involving cleaning products - Hugh ran, locks of shoulder length brown hair waving in the air behind him.

He actually counted how many steps he had taken before a gun, a real desert eagle, was aimed at him from several feet ahead of him and he froze in his tracks. Hugh had made it thirty steps before his bright hazel eyes widened at how much pressure there was in the air, and how loudly and steadily those detector things were keening. The woman aiming at him had said to get down on his knees, but fear of being shot or captured kept him from moving. Before his legs could react to the primal urge to _get the fuck away from whatever was about to happen_ , blinding radioactive green light filled his vision and all he knew was pain.

* * *

 **I keep killing people as soon as i bring them in, something is wrong with me. whatever. Anyways, that was the latest chappy, what doth ye think? Oh and yes, i did just create a Spirit/Human hybrid _right in front of the GIW_ , and yes i am evil. only a little though, have you _seen_ the kind of people who write fanfiction nowadays?**

 **Invader Johnny: yes, i do. it's not a war yet, though. hell, we haven't even gotten to the Ti-**

 **FMAlover32: thank you and technically he already is the king. but yes. maybe.**

 **I have an idea of what i'm gonna do next chapter but for now I'm gonna say expect the unexpected (update time wise) andhave a lovely wednesday (or whatever day you started reading on)... by the way, I'm updating these on the same day of the week as the chapter features.**

 **RISE, CHILDREN OF THE WORLDS, BORN OF MAN AND SPIRIT! TO ALL HALFAS, RISE AND REMAKE THE WORLDS**


	6. wear your hazmats to the science party

**Greetings and Beanvenue dear readers, I'm glad to see you here once again! With all the freak outs happening online about the election I feel I should remind you of a few things: president can't make laws, there's checks and balances, and populations only _allow_ themselves to be governed. So like, he can't take away your free will. Chill. **

**Now then, we have this here fic with halfas popping up all over the place and I have a request for you all: any of you that wanna roleplay one of your own characters meeting this version of Danny as a halfa, pm me, I'll send you a link to a google doc, we'll roleplay and maybe turn it into a chapter.**

 **that said, we have tension, government conspiracies, and weird developments. 4100 + words catches up and i kinda forget what all happens even though I just finished editing. ENJOY**

 **...BUT DANNY TOOK A LOOK INSIDE OF IT**

* * *

Slipping on his newest invention, Tucker was elated to see blue dots fill his vision. With the press of a button on the frame of the geek's glasses, the dots vanished to reveal the lab before him. "Yes," he cheered to himself, drawing the brief gaze of the large yeti scientists around him. "Now Danny isn't the only one with a ghost sense. Just gotta adjust a few settings and these bad boys will be perfect."

"I take it the project is a success?" Tucker turned to beam at the sound of a familiar yeti's gruff voice. This spirit wore an indigo sash instead of a gold one like most of the other Far Frozen. It had been hard, at first, to tell them all apart. Thankfully, none of the friendly yetis to that with offense.

"Yeah, Freeze! My Specter Detectors are working just fine, thanks to you and your tech." Taking off the extra, augmented, pair of glasses, the dark-toned teen held up a hand to the frosty spirit. The high five he received nearly knocked him over, but he was too excited to care. "With these, I won't have to be in the same period as Danny to know when we need to check out a ghost."

"May I see them, Sir Foley?" At the younger's nod, Freeze lifted the glasses up to his own eyes and checked the readings against his own senses. "Your detectors are picking up a couple of extra signatures, one here and one in the library." Tucker's brows furrowed in confusion as he put the specs back on. Taking a count of everyone in the room, there were only thirty yetis, even though his specs counted thirty-one.

"Odd, there's nothing in the room that I can think of that should be counting as an extra ectosignature." Turning them off he sighed, putting his actual glasses back on. "I had taken apart the Fenton Finder at least three times, and it worked perfectly when we put it back together. The only difference with this is that it's smaller and more sensitive."

Freeze narrowed his eyes with a hum and studied Tucker's form critically. Unlike humans, spirits were able to perceive various energies naturally, and the energies that he sensed in the dark toned boy's aura felt off. The scientist hadn't met many humans besides the Great One and his friends, but thinking on it, humans energies were likely not meant to mix with ectoplasmic energies so easily. "Perhaps, Sir Foley, it is picking up on you?"

"I'm not from this dimension, so I wouldn't radiate any ectoplasmic energy signatures," he replied quickly. It was impossible, of course. Doubt wormed into his mind a couple seconds later and he set the glasses down. "Although… I did get turned into a half ghost that one time by Desiree and that scepter had infused me with its energies while I was wielding it." He turned the screwdriver he had been using on the specs in his hands, tossing it between hands absently. "And Danny _has_ overshadowed me a couple times, which, if I remember, is a physical thing."

"That it is, Sir Foley," Freeze nodded in agreement, before turning to look over results that had been handed to him. "Yourself and Lady Manson have also been exposed to spectral energies without anything to prevent any side effects of being in contact with interdimensional energy and matter."

"And we were there when the portal opened up!" The young engineer noticed that he was fidgeting with the tool and set it down. Was he evolving into a halfa? He wanted to think that it wasn't likely, but Tucker was no expert on interdimensional energies and how they interacted with the human body. Perhaps he should have put on a jumpsuit like the Drs. Fenton always wore? "I'm not sure how I feel about what possibilities this implies."

" _I think_ ," a familiar voice spoke into his ear, reminding Tucker that his Fenton Phone was both on and still in his ear. " _That you probably shouldn't be worried. Neither you nor Sam have shown any major signs of ghost powers, and neither of you have died or had an ecto charged near death experience._ " The argument was compelling, really, and it comforted him for all of a moment.

" _Does the death of one's sense of self count as a near-death experience? Cause if so then the whole town experienced that when Undergrowth came on the scene._ " Upon hearing Sam's rather valid point, Tucker gained a tight grip on the table. " _I feel more energized whenever I'm around plants, the ghostly kind especially, but I wrote that off as my love for all things flora._ "

"That's probably it, right? You have a green thumb and a love of all things veggie, so that's not something to worry about." both voices snorted in amusement over the line and Tucker let out a defeated sigh. "Okay, that's probably not it, but how likely is it that this is a malicious thing?"

There was a moment or two of silence before their heroic hybrid friend spoke. " _I'll be there in three minutes tops, guys, I'll meet you up in the lab."_ Only a click and the sound of paper turning and a pencil scratching down marks could be heard, a background noise that Tucker had grown accustomed to during study sessions.

Tucker set his palms down on the work table he had been using, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "There's a possibility that being exposed to an alternate dimension rich with energy mixed so finely into physical matter that it's metaphysical has altered my DNA. I might be a hybrid between two completely alien species to each other. I have an ectosignature." He let the breath out and opened his eyes. "I still have work to do on these Spector Detectors, to differentiate the energies of a ghost, a hybrid and whatever I am. Slacking off is for homework after all." He took some comfort in the amused snort that sounded in his ear and got back to work.

* * *

There was naught but darkness surrounding him, the confinements and restrictions of gravity and magnetism. Then, lights appeared around him of every color known to man. They looked like stars, or maybe fireflies, flitting around seemingly at random and fluctuating in brightness. There were four of them surrounding him, two on each side, bright red and shining more like stars than the others. Something was off about those four, however. There was something dark in the red, a visual his mind provided no name for. It wasn't black, exactly, but something close.

Before he could identify what the new sight was, Hugh's nerves began to shout at him in alarm. Every inch of skin, even the parts covered with hair, felt as though it had been scrubbed raw in the hottest bath he'd ever taken. Something cold and hard pressed against his back, the same feeling around his wrists and ankles, and on his thighs and upper arms. There was a light above his head that was far too bright, even with his eyes closed, and he could tell that it was shining directly on his face. It sucked like hell.

He felt a groan rasp his throat like sand-paper and tried to turn his head away from the light, only to find that his muscles didn't feel like complying. His ears, however, were starting to work again. Everything was muffled at first, as though he was underwater. Voices were making sounds that could have been words, but he wasn't sure. When he finally got his body to respond he managed to flop his head to the side, the sound of mechanical clicks and unusual high pitched whines met his ears, raising his hackles.

His eyes peeled back slowly to the sight of a gun's barrel pointed at his head. His mouth felt as dry as the desert but he opened it with a raspy cry of alarm, eyes widening when he saw more than one gun was pointed at him. His heart felt like a drum beating rapidly in his chest while he twisted his head around to see four weapons pointed at different spots on his body. Two were the standard issue pistols one saw government goons putting into their hidden holsters. Hugh's mouth turned to a desert and phantom pains shot through his body; he was very aware of how deadly those guns would be and how dead he would be from a single pulled trigger.

"Subject has obtained consciousness," a cold emotionless voice spoke into their clothing. They all wore SWAT outfits drained of all color except white and green, the only discernable thing about them their eyes and voices. "It's struggling against the restraints. Get a doctor in here with a sedative."

The moisture returned to Hugh's mouth. "You can't do that! I'm not some subject, I'm a human being! My name is Hugh Gutermuth, I've got rights!" Twin doors opened up to reveal the forest he had been investigating like a moron and his muscles strained further against the leather straps holding him to a slab of metal. A short man in a lab coat stepped in holding a syringe filled with clear liquid. "I'm an American citizen and a minor! This is illegal on so many levels!" The needle was pressed against his arm, right where the doctors always administered his flu shots. "Get that thing away from me, _you psycho!"_ Something about his voice sounded off, unnatural, but in his panic, he didn't care. It gave the man pause and dark brown hues stared back into the boy's without compassion, no remorse, not a single scrap of empathy.

"I cannot administer the sedative to the subject while it is thrashing like this," the tiny, soulless man told to one of the people holding a rifle made of shiny chrome metal, and they pointed it directly into his face. Green filled his vision and all of his muscles went slack. Green, pain, lemons, fire that left behind nothing, yet everything-

The sharp discomfort that came with getting a shot flared as pain to his now sensitized skin and he jerked to the left with as much force as he could manage. " _NO! I'm not some lab experiment for you to mess around with_! You can't do this!" the plunger was pushed down as the barrel of the pistol he had woken to was pressed against the side of his skull. "You can't do this, it's not right!"

"So you say, Mr. Gutermuth," the scientist said as he pulled the syringe out and patted the boy's arm. "But with what you have become, right and wrong no longer apply."

* * *

Tucker and Sam had both agreed to being scanned as Danny had been when he discovered his ice core. While collecting themselves and listening to the halfa's story, the results were brought to them by Glaciigi, another scientist with teal eyes instead of red. "It's undeniable, young ones," she observed. "You both have your own unique ectosignatures. Neither is entirely developed, you don't even have cores." She gestured to the center of her chest and handed over the results for the teens to scrutinize themselves, Danny holding it between his friends. "You aren't quite halfas, but I'm not sure if you're human anymore."

"Thank you, Glaciigi," Sam nodded politely, worry kept carefully from her tone. "We appreciate your confirmation."

"This is weird, and I really need my own lab somewhere that I can work on figuring this out." Danny glanced up at all of the technology around them, far more advanced than even what his parents made. "Without getting in anyone's way. I need to run some tests to figure out the chemical compositions of my own blood, and check both of you out to see if it's left any noticeable changes."

Sam and Tucker shared a look, Tucker gesturing for Sam to go ahead. The goth then thwapped the hybrid teen on the head. "You're doing it again, Danny, and so help me Clockwork, if you try to shoulder all of this on your own again-"

"Then we will grab you with our replacements for the ghost gauntlets, drag you to Sam's house bodily, and force you to watch B lister horror films with us until you're brain is working right again." Tucker's glare could melt the arctic, Sam's matching one surely able to wither a forest in moments.

Danny took in their looks and laughed. "Alright, sure I get it, guys. I am not Atlas, and I should stop being such a self-centered glory hog. We'll work it out together, right?" Both friends nodded and he furled up the results to put in his pocket as they began to walk outside.

"Yup, but for now we need to get home before Jazz enacts our cover stories." Sam gave both of her arms a few rubs before noting that her friend was distractedly tilting his head back and forth. "What is it?"

"I hear something odd… I dunno, like the beeps of a computer?" Danny began to rise off of the ground, flying towards the speeder faster than before. "Don't you guys hear it too? I know it's faint but still." He opened the door and headed for the driver's seat.

"No, but I have a feeling you'd like us to go check it out?" Tucker gently guided Danny to the passenger's seat while taking over the steering. Danny was perfectly fine flying his body, but that was much leaner than the large exploration vehicle that they were in. "I mean it's not like we have home to get to dinner with our families or anything."

"Tucker, it's our responsibility-"

"To make sure our families don't become so suspicious that our excuses stop working, no matter how elaborate they've become." He cut her off with a glare. "Our parents must be worried sick by now with how much we stay out and I don't feel like being put on house arrest, Sam."

Danny let out a sigh and shifted back to human form, silencing the strange beeping noise for the moment. "He's right, Sam. We can check it out tomorrow. For now, let's head home, Tuck. I still have to convince my parents to properly advertise FentonWorks." That was going to be an endeavor, he was sure. Learning an ancient language, and possibly more of them, while thinking up a way to get his family on the market was going to be a real challenge in the middle of all of this.

As he pulled off and put in the coordinates for their destination, Tucker turned to Danny with a grin. "Hey, Danny, about that. I wanted to ask you something."

"This should be good," Sam rolled her eyes. "Gonna ask him to try teleportation by summoning meat to your room?" Tucker shot the goth a nasty look and earned a snort in response.

"Unlike _some_ people, I'm not going to ask you to use your supernatural abilities to do something that could result in the loss of jobs through destruction or theft of property." Danny raised a brow at the tension he was starting to sense between his friends.

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean, Tucker?" Sam's expression soured and her arms crossed. Danny could smell and taste the salt of the ocean and realized he would have to step in soon.

"Just ask the SUVs that Desiree crushed with a cow, not me." Tucker entered a staring contest with Sam easily, tensing as though ready for an impromptu sparring match.

Sam opened her mouth, but Danny got between them and gently shoved them both back. "Whoa. Chill. We're teenagers, we make mistakes, and we love and forgive each other. Right, guys?" The two grumbled out their yeses and Danny nodded for Tuck to go ahead.

The tech-savvy teen took a breath and his smile returned. "I was actually asking your permission to start up a merchandising line for Phantom memorabilia. That way, we can get a fund going separate to however your parents are paying for their housing and food for the licensing of mass production for Fenton Works products. And," he added with a smirk. "You get a little spending money as a thank you from your phans."

Danny hummed in consideration but was cut off by Sam's irritated voice. It made him wonder why exactly his friends were friends with each other. "Isn't being a hero supposed to be its own reward, Tucker? Making money off of saving people sounds a bit like something Vlad would do, if you ask me."

"No," Tucker said slowly with a roll of his eyes. "This would be no different than earning income from being any form of law enforcement beyond how much he's getting."

"I agree with Tuck here, Sam." Danny shrugged and looked outside of the speeder, watching the purple asteroids and doors float by. "I mean, why shouldn't I earn a bit of cash if I'm gonna be saving everyone voluntarily? It's not hurting anyone to buy merchandise."

Sam sighed and glared at Tucker's smug face, but shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever, Danny. Like you said, it's your choice, Danny."

* * *

All around him was green. There were other colors mixed in to varying degrees, but mostly there were green lights glowing dimly, and they were everywhere. They burned and resonated pain that echoed through his skull. So much pain, loneliness, sadness, fear. There was so much of it, it hurt to hear it, see it, feel their pain. He wanted it to stop, he needed it to stop stop STOP!

His eyes opened, slowly, with more effort than he should have had to put into it. His first coherent thought was _that is way too much white_. Walls, ceiling, and if he had to guess, the floor too. Everything was a bright, glaring white and it made his eyes burn. He tried to voice his protest on the monochromatic theme of wherever the hell he was, but Hugh found that his tongue was practically made of led. All that came out was an unintelligible groan, and then a light was shined directly into his eyes, just as a white door was opened before him. As he squeezed his eyes shut with a whine of protest - the best he could do at the moment - memories slowly began flooding back into his mind.

 _Shit._

He was securely strapped to a gurney, and somewhere in an unknown facility that was likely miles away from his home. His kidnappers had referred to him as a subject, and that meant illegal human experimentation. On him! He swore internally. When he opened his eyes again he saw a face, tan skin, high cheekbones and dark brown eyes. There was a mole under his left eye, discoloration on the skin of his forehead like he had smeared paint on it three too many times. _It's amazing what details I pick up when I'm absolutely terrified._ The man was waving a small green flashlight over his face again, shining it in his eyes alternatively. "Pupil dilation is normal ala human," he muttered into the collar of his white lab coat. Finger's were snapped next to Hugh's ears and he flinched away from the sound, startled to see that the room he was in was filled with other scientists. There were at least six from his count, each either at a computer console in the wall, or staring in his direction with a clipboard and pen in hand. There were also a couple of guards at the door, each armed with those weird sci-fi guns. "Reaction to sound normal."

He tried to lift his leg, maybe kick the guy in the stomach to get him away, and found that his limbs were heavier than his tongue. Luckily, that began to lighten. "Yeah, abou 'e oe orma ing here." The man blinked and leaned back, moving to a control panel behind him.

"Subject appears to be rousing from the effects of the sedative, language skills seem lacking." One of the other scientists, some guy with a long stitch that started on his brow - or above it - and went down to his collarbone, white hair, and glasses actually laughed. Hugh found it hard to see the humor in the situation. "Alright, young man, I am doctor Gray, the guy currently in charge of what happens to you." Their eyes met and the teen's already slow pulse skipped a beat when he saw the malicious interest in the man's gaze. "If you _don't_ try to break out and make a run for it, then you'll find me to be about as nice as your pediatrician likely was. _Do_ try to escape," he pointed to the man with the scar across his face. "And I'll let Frank dissect you to find out what makes you tick. Capice?"

Hugh found himself nodding when Frank pulled out a scalpel. "Why am I here?" He refocused on Dr. Gray, not wanting to be rude to the people that were obviously ready to cut him up like a turkey. "I don't remember volunteering for any stem cell research." This got a few more laughs from around the room. What was so funny about asking for permission to do experiments?

The doctor decided to be kind enough to give him some information after tapping away at his control panel, a bright green screen being projected into existence above Hugh's head. "You see, young man, you were involved in something phenomenal that should have left you dead." Hazel orbs widened and Hugh jerked against his restraints trying to sit upwards.

"What do you mean? All I remember from today is heading to my friend's house, searching through the woods and getting kidnapped. As far as I know, not everyone who ends up in that situation winds up dead."

"No," Gray rolled his eyes, taking a thermometer off of one of the wheeled tables around the room and sticking it into the captive teenager's mouth. "No, you should be dead for a very different reason. If you try to remember hard enough I'm sure a flash of green light will fill your vision." It beeped and he wrote down the temperature. "79.3 Fahrenheit… there is an alternate dimension that interacts with our own. Think of it as this dimension's weird neighbor that doesn't understand the concept of personal space and is constantly poking us." He slid a cold metal disk under Hugh's shirt and let it rest on his chest. "When it pokes our dimension, a portal forms; a doorway from this side to that one and back."

"This all sounds like sci-fi bullshit," there was a beeping above him, rising in pace like the beating of his heart. "and I seem to be the damsel in distress."

"Except there's no hero coming to save you from the clutches of some evil organization," Frank snickered and jotted down his own notes about the situation. The way he stared at the brunette had him shivering. "Partially because we aren't evil, and partially because no one knows where you are but us."

Hugh snorted at that and glared. "Telling a minor 'behave or be vivisected' is both illegal and evil." Before Frank could say anything to that fine piece of logic, Dr. Gray earned Hugh's attention by sticking a dropper pipet into his mouth and quickly placing a sample of his saliva into a test tube, which he then handed to the platinum blond scientist. "Why do you want my spit?" The pitch of his voice rose and the teen tried his best to pull at the bonds.

"Because you were caught in the middle of one of those portals as it formed," Gray stared into Hugh's eyes with fascination. "No one should survive being exposed to that much ectoplasmic radiation, so we're very curious as to what it is that's keeping you alive. It's likely to reside in your DNA, and that happens to be in your saliva, young man."

"Considering that saliva is mostly water," Frank interrupted from his workstation. "I do believe I'll need a few more samples, so as to find out exactly what the radiation has done to him."

Hugh's eyes had widened to the size of saucers and he felt his pulse racing now. Radiation, other dimensions, ectoplasm? He didn't like the sound of any of that and it made his head swim with some rather nasty images on how they would collect their samples. "When… when do I get to go home?" Dr. Gray merely chuckled and wrote something down in his notes.

* * *

 **SO. Yeah. Hugh is fucked. who can guess what that beeping Danny heard was? show of hands, c'mon.**

 **Tucker poked at one of Sam's flaws because I'm coming to realize that I... i don't like her. i don't hate her, but I don't like her. more on that later on though, cause Danny is real chill! Aaaand technically not halfas buuut I don't wanna give either of them that much power so here's a compromise. onto the review responses!**

 **Invader Johnny: this is true.**

 **AnnonymousPoet: arigato, it's back once more!**

 **RandomPhantom: Bad Things of course. Thank you! she'll be interesting to write. well, they wouldn't be ruins without some attack having happened lol, and thanks. creepy is what i was going for with it.**

 **jim89: I wouldn't say it was a beacon of understanding. 200,000 years ago is about uh... before humanity. remember those demons from The Summoning? They still exist in this story too, though they happen to also not be the only threat to the Spirit World. The library and all are intact because, well, Clockwork's words translate to Time Out - or in, i forget which - Restore. Basically, they restored the building to its former glory. There are some things that defy his powers there, but mostly it's like new. Just... lifeless. Febe's actually not got any immediate family anymore, those people unfortunately died. As for the probes, I felt it was something that a more logical person like Jazz would come up with and she and Danny would put them together with their parents. By the time that Jack and Maddie actually go to the Spirit World there'll be a full map of the space covering the US! And they took him in because he got caught between two dimensions and still had a pulse. They are secret because taxpayers wouldn't be happy to find out that one of the services they pay for is ghost hunting. plus, in Hugh's defense, he thought it was some loon and that it'd be a good laugh to see what the hell was going on.**

 **ok well, there you have it friendos. stay safe, read and review and if you wanna try rping an interaction to put into the story here, or into your own story, PM me and I'll try getting to that asap.**

 **I don't actually have an end quote for you, so instead: who has some quotes of V.V. Argost? my google search provided nothing.**


	7. Another Chance at Making Rescue Plans

**So, we have some fun stuff happening here, but I'm in the middle of class right now and not supposed to be typing this. a friend behind me is judging me. IGNORING HIM here's chapter 7... or is it six? Who wants a lil backstoryyyy?**

 **...THERE WAS A GREAT BIG FLASH...**

* * *

A man stood over the control panel for a large and complex machine, dressed in a surgically clean white lab coat, long white pants and a pair of safety goggles. The screen he gazed upon was a bright iridescent green, with dark reds and blues flitting across it. The charts and graphs brought a smile to his face, and he turned back to the large metal chamber to his left. In it was dark purple fluid full of various nutrients and enzymes, a ball of flesh floating within. His first attempts truly were foolish, as he thought of them now. He had all of the necessary components without much need of anyone else. One last check of the status of the homunculus in the pod, and he turned to take off his gloves and hood.

Just as stark white and grey hair fell back out of the confines of the lab coat's hood, a weight fell upon the man's neck and chest, and sensitive ears noted that all sounds had completely ceased. In a flash of black light, Vlad Plasmius whirled around with a hand full of blazing crimson fire, ruby eyes scanning the area for whatever intruder had interrupted his work. "I have documents to write and business to attend to, so whomever you are, show yourself now or make your leave of me." Glancing down at his chest, he lifted a golden gear with five teeth and a fancy CW written in blue on the center connected to the leather strap around his neck. "And what kind of jewelry is this? I thought I made it clear that I am not accepting any courtship from the Ghost Zone."

"It's not exactly a courtship," a deep and rather dry voice echoed from everywhere. Shimmering into existence was the form of a spirit with blue skin, red eyes, and a purple, clock themed tunic. "Though," they stated whilst twirling their staff, "considering what I know you are emotionally capable of given the chance, it easily could be." The spirit paused and chuckled at their own words, causing Vlad to raise a brow. "As I'm sure you've noticed, Time around you has come to a stop."

"Yes, and is this localized or has all of Time come to a pause?" Most would likely be terrified in the moment, faced with a being whose aura was subtly covering the entire room in electric blue light, but Vlad was honestly just curious. He was a scientist at heart, after all.

"I'm rather selective with my use of this power," the spirit indulged, regressing before Vlad's eyes into the form of a baby, buck teeth and all. "So, it's localized to this solar system the majority of the time." They could nearly see the information being filed away for later thought in the vampire-themed halfa's head. "I'm not here to talk about me, though.

"Well, I'd like to know the name of whomever I am doing business with, if you would be so polite?" He reverted to his human form calmly, not wanting to seem as though he were trying to intimidate the Time ghost. "I have to assume it has something to do with Time? You aren't Kronus or Khonsu, are you?"

They snorted, shaking their head. "Dear Ancients, no. I am neither that fool titan nor that arrogant and gluttonous gambler. I am Clockwork, the spirit of Time. I'm here questioning your value of life." Vlad's face fell into its usual scowl, but they continued on. The two became transparent, and the room changed into something different. "The first one that you stole, you did so with vigor." Disinterest and annoyance became disgust and anger when a younger Vlad, freshly released from the hospital and wondering how he would get the money to continue his education, was dragged into an alleyway. The place reeked of piss and there were dark stains all over the walls. The mugger got in a couple of punches under the weak looking nerd's ribs before nails became two inch long talons and raked across the man's face. Blood flew in the alley and the present Vlad barely flinched at the sight of it. He knew how this went down.

The mugger tried to kick him down, but Vlad's attempt at punching him went wrong. Instead of simply hitting him, the balled up fist lost tangibility and went _through_ the man, dazing him and leaving him with a sense of violation. The mugger stumbled back and turned to leave, but Vlad - angry, lonely, scared and pissed - snarled at him and reached forward. Talons ripped into skin before losing substance once more, digging into the flesh before grasping the man's heart in a death grip. He pulled his arm out and the man fell dead at his feet, blood dripping from his disconnected heart onto the ground. For a moment all was still and quiet filled the alleyway.

Young Vlad's eyes went from red to blue and he let out a shriek of unmitigated horror, dropping the organ from his red soaked hand. The world faded as the man of the past stared at his hands and the body he had turned into a corpse. Back in Vlad's lab, the billionaire fought back a bit of bile and glared openly at the Time spirit, now leaning on their staff as though it were a cane, wrinkled skin and long white beard showing the spirit's likely true age. "You killed him when you did not have to."

"He had attempted to take what little money I had and beat me even after he had gotten it." Vlad sniffed and resisted the urge to turn his nose up at the other. "He got what he deserved."

"And yet you were horrified at what you had done as soon as you came back to your senses." They pointed their staff at him before pointing behind themselves at a different scene in a different lab. The pods for the homunculi were all closed except for one, and the homunculi were all gathered around Vlad and Daniel as they bantered back and forth about Vlad's villainy and desire for a family. "You had some sense of value for intelligent life and then what happened to you?" They watched as Vlad called Danielle a mistake, an imperfection, and then attempted to force Daniel to transform. When Vlad told Danielle that he would stabilize her, Clockwork turned their gaze upon him. "She was plenty intelligent enough to understand her emotions, to truly feel love and empathy. And yet…" the scene changed again, Danielle melting away into a puddle of ectoplasmic goo. "You readily let her die, instead of attempting to help, and didn't even bat an eye."

"She was no more than an artificial creation," Vlad defended, rolling his eyes. "Why was I to care whether or not she persisted or not? All I wanted was to study how her body had developed differently from the other homunculi."

"You went as far as to give her a middle name, Vlad." The halfa tensed and stared at the spirit in front of him, now at the prime of youth, looking down at him as a disappointed parent did when their child did not understand the point of a bedtime story being told to them. "You cared about her at some point, and then stopped. Do you know what has been degrading your value for life, Vlad?" They were back in the lab at Wisconsin this time, green and red splatters all over the purple walls. Similar places flowed by like water in a river, all of them covered in various degrees of blood - either green or red or both - and at the center of it all was Vlad. "If you end up figuring it out, do try and keep it from happening again."

A circle of light appeared behind the Time Spirit and they grinned wryly, returning to the form that Vlad first saw them in. They pointed their staff at the pod as they spoke. "You are giving yourself that chance once again, Vlad. Do not waste it again, or you may not get another." They were encompassed within the light of their portal and the world began moving forward once more, the gear no longer present on Vlad's person.

The eldest halfa inhaled slowly and exhaled a jet of flame. "A bit of target practice should help me unwind… Corvus." a solid light projection of a man in his late 20's with pitch black hair, dark brown eyes, and a beak nose appeared, the Maddie and Jack holograms replaced after the debacle with Danielle and the other homunculi. "Remind me in, say, thirty minutes to prepare the proper documentation for Phillip. I don't want to forget after my workout."

"As you wish, Mr. Masters," a Russian baritone responded, "and your meetings with the Axiom board of directors, and Guys in White R&D head scientists? Shall I reschedule so that you are not impeded by emotional unrest due to the cause of the spike in ectoplasmic energy moments ago?"

Vlad waved his electronic assistant off as he headed for the stairs. "No, I should be fine by the end of my practice, if in need of sustenance. Tell Alexander to make me the usual after my workout." The program bowed and vanished, whilst Vlad ascended the stairs to the main part of his mansion.

* * *

"So, I think we should take FentonWorks worldwide, really advertise what we have and that it works! I mean, think of the people that you could educate about gho- Nah, that wouldn't work." Floating a foot above his bed in a sitting position, Danny tapped his pencil eraser against his knee, an open book in his lap. In it were crossed out lines of potential speeches he could give his parents about expanding on FentonWorks, and explaining how he knew about spikes in spectral energy around the world or that more ghosts would pop up globally.

Sam and Tucker sat on his bed and at his desk, throwing out ideas. "We could tell them that you were in the lab looking at some readings out of curiosity and noticed some odd readings?" Tucker supplied.

"Yeah, but there would have to be weird readings recorded by the computer or else they'll think I'm making it up," Danny shook his head before pausing to tilt his head. "Though… dad launched a satellite last month during our trip out to the desert, I could probably find some readings just like that!" A duplicate appeared next to him and phased out of sight, and through the floor.

"Danny," Sam quirked a brow, tone carrying a lilt of concern. "How did your dad get approval to launch a satellite? I'm pretty sure that requires a lot of waiting and legal forms."

"Only if the government can track you." The youngest Fenton shrugged, confused by his friend's concern. "And this is like, the third?"

"Fourth," Tucker chimed in, having known Danny longer than Sam. "Don't forget the Chihuahuan desert, the Great Basin, and the Mojave desert."

"Right, the fourth time they've sent up a satellite. Matter of fact, I bet I can equip the previous three with new scanners once we discern the difference between halfa signatures and ghost signatures."

"Danny," Sam sat up a bit straighter, waving a hand in front of her friend's face. "You've lost me. So, before the seventh grade when I met you two, your family has launched three other satellites into space without the knowledge of the government? How'd they get the metal and tech to do that?"

"Wherever they got the materials to build the ops center I guess?" Danny shrugged and floated lower, brow raised. "What exactly is the problem, Sam? I thought you hated the government? Too many officials counteracting our constitutional rights and all?"

"Well, some government officials I hate," she grumbled, that smell of salty sea air wafting towards Danny once again. This time he was sure that it was coming from Sam. "But I do have a little respect for the law. And I'm also curious as to how your parents have the resources for any of this stuff. Do you have portals to other dimensions besides the ghost zone setup to pull iron and steel from?"

"Yes, in the Sonoran desert." Sam's jaw dropped, Tucker stopped spinning in Danny's chair and the halfa scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion. "Did I not tell you guys about this? It's the reason why I had a hazmat suit in the first place. Jazz's suit got torn to shreds at some point and she lost interest in gathering the materials. I'm not sure if Dad or Mom has gone back there in a while, though…"

"When were you gonna tell us this?" Tucker asked into the following silence, pulling at the sleeve of his shirt. "Like, do you know how much I coulda done with that?"

"It's just like with Sam being rich, man, I didn't know. I-" he stopped, a wisp of blue smoke trailing from his lips as Danny Phantom flew outside of his window, flying in circles around Skulker. "Should probably join my duplicate. Who wants to come?"

"I call the sniper rifle!" Sam pulled one of the Fenton weapons out of her pack and used the Crammer to enlarge it back to full size. "I'm in a sniping mood right now." Danny flew out the window as Phantom and joined himself in the fight against Skulker, delivering a solid kick to his chest, and freezing one of his wings. Sam fired upon the jet wing as the hunter ghost fell to the earth, showering the pavement in metal and ice cubes. "Skulker really needs to up his game. How long until SkulkTech?"

"Not very, actually." Tucker checked his Ronda and hummed. "It was 9.0 so that means that they did plenty of trial and error but they managed to survive _Him_ so that makes them a pretty strong team together."

"Honestly Skulker," Danny yawned and floated on his back, firing a blast at the older ghost's foot and melting the rubber of the shoes to the asphalt. "Why do you still bother trying to hunt me? It's not like you're getting any stronger. Meanwhile, I am. And I have friends. Do you still have any?"

"Impudent child!" Skulker bellowed and exposed the missile launchers on his shoulders, spurring the ghost boy into action. "I have several friends! And they shall all praise me once I mount your pelt on my wall above my bed, and your head on a pedestal in my trophy room." As Danny weaved around the missiles, Skulker aimed and landed a hit on the insignia on his prey's chest. "Thank you for painting a target on your chest, child."

Danny was sent flying back several feet, dazed just enough that he didn't react in time to protect himself from the heat-seeking missiles. Luckily, a shot from an ectorifle dented Skulker's arm cannon before he could get a shot out. "It's not a target, it's a statement on who he is!" Another shot hit the hunter square in the face, causing him to stagger back. "A target would be a big hulking mech suit with flaming green hair."

"Let's see if I can at least hit a target in hand to hand." Danny shook himself and swung an uppercut to Skulker's chin, ripping the head from the rest of the suit with the force of it. "Well wouldya look at that? My aim is gettin better." Unclipping a thermos from his belt, Danny sucked skulker and the head of his suit into the containment device, then grabbed the rest of it before it could hit the street. "Should probably put this to good use, huh?" Danny handed it over to his duplicate and watched as the other Phantom flew off to the nearest junk yard.

"So that took about a minute." Tucker held up his PDA with a grin as Danny phased into the room and transformed back into Fenton. "New record for dealing with Skulker. Is it sad that we now have to set time records to make it as interesting as it was back when we first started doing this?"

"No," Sam snorted, cramming the rifle once more and storing it in her pocket. "It's awesome that we can keep people like Skulker from hurting anyone without even trying that much." Flopping onto the bed she spread her arms out before folding them behind her head. "Maybe we can even take Vlad down if we put together a plan."

"And do what with him?" Tucker raised a brow. "It's not like we can put him in jail - either in the Zone or here on earth. We have no proof that the cameras are his since they're designed after his Plasmius form, not his human form."

"Plus Walker wouldn't be able to contain him, especially since he couldn't contain me. And I doubt we'd be able to take on Vlad in a straight on fight, Sam." The goth quirked a brow at the floating teen and he flipped upside down to stare back at her. "I've never beaten him at full strength, just foiled his plans or temporarily weakened him. In a fair fight, he'd probably kick my ass seven ways to Sunday again."

"Aren't I supposed to be the one who's pessimistic?" Sam sighed and sat up, grabbing her bag to rummage through.

"Yes, but I'm the one who's realistic and Danny is the one who's learning through his cluelessness. So, we know what _I_ was doing at the Far Frozen while Danny visited ancient ruins, what about you?" Tuck pointed at his friend with his stylus and grinned when she did, pulling out a book with a black cover, purple spider design on the front. "Looking up ancient art techniques?"

"No, you meathead, I was researching some things about ghost culture and found something interesting in the older books of the Far Frozen library." Sam opened up her journal to the green bookmark, ignoring the others for now. "There are rumors that spirits crossed the threshold of the dimensional gateways thousands of years before. They went to earth, not caring if the natural portals were temporary or not, and they ended up falling in love with humans. There's even mention of spirits joking around about the fact that these unions resulted in what the humans called demigods."

Danny dropped down and gently took the journal from Sam's grip, flipping through pages quickly but carefully. She always took better notes than he or Tucker could and Danny couldn't have been happier for that. Spirits by the names of the greek gods were mentioned, names he knew well from his studying the stars. "This means… Vlad wasn't the first human spirit hybrid in existence. It also means…"

"That he might not be the first one of his decade?" Sam supplied, taking back her journal. "What if there are natural born half ghosts out there who have no idea who or what they are?"

"Clockwork's tablet didn't reveal any unknown halfa signatures." Tucker pulled the tablet out of his bag and unlocked it, bringing up the holographic map. "Unless we're blind or something."

"Something…" Sam stared at the glowing blue and green orb for a moment before a thought struck her. "Display Ghost Zone map!" The globe vanished and the room was filled with countless floating purple rocks, some larger than others. "Show halfa signatures." Eight dots blipped into existence, blinking at the pace of a heartbeat. The map focused in on the area that the earth occupied in relevance to all of them and showed most of them white. One was icy blue and on the continent that Danny had left his duplicate at. The other was violet and hovered in a very familiar space. "Overlap Earth and the Ghost Zone." The purple dot was now laying over Egypt, where Febe had been.

"Looks like Febe had her accident." Danny floated up to the area and sighed. "Wonder why she's in the Zone still, though. I'd want to be anywhere but there if I had just changed into something new and different." A new dot had appeared, this one golden in color, and it flickered erratically over the Sonoran Desert. "Hey now, that's worrying. Two accidents in one day? You'd think the Master of Time would give me more warning than a day's worth."

"We should find them and help them." Ignoring Sam's comment, or perhaps spurred into action because of it, Danny tapped on the gold dot, not surprised when it expanded into a picture. "Danny? You listening?"

"We'd need more than us to help Hugh here, where he is now." The halfa's hand began to shake and his eyes glowed bright green as they read the words over and over again. GIW headquarters. "But he can be damned sure we'll bust him out."

* * *

 **dun dun duuuUUUUUNNNNNN look at that Danny and friends know what's going on with Hugh! well, they have their imaginations. also, Vlad is a murderer, who is surprised, show of hands? *squints at the empty space above the crowd* yeeeaaah, thought so. oh well.**

 **InvaderJohnny: nah, he's getting money for his own merchendise, not his hero services. He'll save people pay or no, but if someone's buying danny phantom stuff, Danny Phantom should get that money. sadly, no consequences are planned for this action.**

 **Lobisomen616: THANK YOU ^_^ i checked the wiki and found none**

 **Ethan Demas: even though we spoke, it was far too long ago. so, to answer your questions: I will be giving them both some interesting perks to being ectomutants, Jazz will be changed as well, and as for the other types of people around the world? Well... I did put that the Fentons will be supplying their ghost defense stuff around the world. people will be able to defend themselves to a point, and the halfas will be imprisoned if they misbehave, cause they have quite the authrity figures in the original two of the century.**

 **Alas, 'tis the hour of adieu, many blessings to you all!**

 **also, I got a job, so my writting will be staunted in time.**


	8. Preparation Revelations

**Before we start, hello my lovely readers! I know that the few of you paying attention to this story are likely wondering what happened to Febe. Answer: I'm not sure what to put for her just yet so you'll have to wait. I didn't want to delay this chapter too long.**

 **Also, Hugh's favorite doctor is named Gabriel Gray (Grey, whatever) and if any of you can tell me where i got that from, you get an internet cookie!**

 **Another thing. Danny has outflown a rocket and lifted a full schoolbus. A ROCKET AND A SCHOOL BUS!**

 **...EVERYTHING JUST CHANGED...**

* * *

Shifting around on his cold, hard, uncomfortable 'bed,' Hugh gave up on sleeping. Hours ago hee had won second place in the debate club, was heading back to his friend's home, and now he was stuck in some government funded Men in Black for ghosts. But racist, cause what's America without that, right? "Fucking ridiculous. There's no such god damn thing as ghosts, and as soon as the _real_ US government finds me, I'll make sure everyone knows about the shit these people are doin to me." And he would be getting out. His Mom and Dad would rally a big search party, he knew it. He wasn't sure which state he was in, but Hugh had a feeling they were in the states.

The lanky teen stretched out and glared at the icy cold cuffs on his wrists, white and green and tight enough to nearly cut off his circulation. "I dunno what they expect to find in my blood. The common cold from when I was seven? Chicken pox?" Hugh glared at the ceiling. "You gonna try and weaponize chicken pox against the dead, weirdos?" No response from the ceiling. He knew it was a bad idea to provoke his captors, but he'd go crazy otherwise.

"If I had scissors I could cut holes in this bedsheet and give them as close to an 'ectoplasmic manifestation of malevolence' as they'll get. I wanna know why you assholes want me. What's really going on? The government can't actually believe in ghosts." There was a loud beeping sound followed by the whoosh of his cell door opening, and Hugh smelled a strange assortment of chemicals and… something else. "Doctors don't usually come to grab their own victims…" he backed up as far as he could on his bed, cot, thing.

Dr. Grey only continued walking forward, rolling his eyes. "Fitting then, since you aren't a victim. Honestly, Mr. Guttermuth, we just want to know how all that ectoplasmic radiation affected you since it didn't instantly kill you." He pulled the boy up by the dull white collared shirt that had been provided for him and 'gently' guided him towards the door. The man's grip felt like iron, and the force behind his pushing made Hugh wonder what steroids he was on. "Today we're going to see how you hold up to environments within which ectoplasmic entities thrive."

"If I'm not your victim," the teen muttered as he tried to find some identifying marks in the hallways he was hurried through, "why the fancy handcuffs?" He held up his wrists to emphasize his point, grunting as he tripped over his own two feet. Hugh would have kissed the floor had it not been for the scientist who hefted him up and physically urged him forward.

"You're light as a feather, you know that? And the cuffs are to neutralize any ectoplasm in your blood. We found a great deal of it in the sample that Frank took actually." Grey stopped when they reached a door, and Hugh finally had time to notice that they had been followed by guards who took up sentry positions. As the scientist entered a code on the keypad and kept his eye open for a retinal scan, he kept one hand on Hugh, like he could hold the boy better than the guards. "Forty percent of your blood is now made up of an extradimensional substance that shifts between states of matter more efficiently than water. Sylar." The door beeped and opened to a room vaster than some buildings.

In the back of the room was a large area of square outlined by green paint, and before that was every form of exercise equipment Hugh had ever seen in his life. Next to each activity station was some sort of medical observation equipment. Directly in front of the outlined platform was a raised podium made of chrome metal with a currently blank screen.

When Hugh was released, Grey approached a desk and opened a drawer, rummaging through it for something that the teen had a feeling he wanted no part in. So, Hugh slowly backed towards the door but felt the cold of the metal seep into his skin through his sheer shirt and groaned in defeat. "This is illegal and wrong and when I get out everyone here is going to jail for violating my rights."

"You're not good at whispering. Off with the shirt." Dr. Grey stood with electrodes in his hand, an eyebrow raised. "You seem to have slipped into some sort of denial so let me remind you: we're not sure if you're even still human or a ghost clinging so tightly to life that he possessed his own corpse. Thus, you don't currently have rights, only privileges. Privileges that I am in charge of granting and revoking. Capice?"

 _This man needs an asylum. Maybe he'll plead insanity when put on trial. They all could._ Instead of voicing his inner thoughts, Hugh nodded and pulled off his shirt, flinching when the scientist snatched it away and tossed it on a bench. "Why…" he paused and tried to chose his words carefully as the electrodes were placed on his head, chest and arms. "Why do you um. Believe in ghosts?" Another electrode on each leg and the doctor stood, warm, rough hand on Hugh's back to urge him towards the outlined area.

"I take it that even with all this, you don't?" Grey turned on the podium, and a yellow light shot up from the inner borders of the green outline, boxing Hugh in and causing the teen to panic and bang on the light. It was somehow as solid as if he were beating on a rock. "Calm down; it's not going to hurt you. I believe in them because I've seen them before. They can be incredibly destructive, but they can also be simply incredible." Strokes of unseen keys and … nothing.

"You know, there's the possibility that you just _thought_ you saw a ghost." Hugh walked around the area and tapped against the yellow shielding, hoping to hear the slightest change in sound. "Did you know that if you're exposed to certain sounds too quiet for the human ear to pick up on for extended periods of time, you could start hallucinating? An old ventilation fan once did that." He punched the wall and winced. "Coulda been that."

While the teen rubbed his arms, Grey tapped a button on his control panel every couple of seconds. "Low-frequency sonic vibrations shook their eyeballs to create phantom images, I'm aware." He typed into a small notes window _setting temperature within control area to negative twenty eight Celsius. The cold and a proper emotional trigger should evoke any ectoplasmic irregularities._ "I assure you, no low register sound could leave a crater in the ground." The scientist leaned back and quietly watched. "So tell me, why don't you believe in ghosts?"

Hugh turned away from the overly curious stare of his captor and began pacing to keep warm. The asshole was chilling his fancy cage, and he couldn't afford to idle lest the good doctor let him freeze. "What are you going to do when you figure out that ghosts are fake and I'm clearly a human being?" Why should he answer the man's questions? Hugh was the one who needed info, not this whack job.

"Then we set you loose back into DC. No one will actually believe you if you try to report us." Gabriel snorted in amusement. He had an idea of what was going through the kid's head. Denial, and gambling. He was hoping for some rescue from the big bad organization from either his parents or some kind of superhero. _It's funny to know that you seem like the bad guy, even as a good guy._ "I do believe I asked you something, kid."

"Thought it was a rhetorical question." Hugh kept his back to the mad scientist. He was too frazzled to keep a poker face, so keeping his face as hidden as possible was the next best thing. "I don't buy into silly superstition. If you die, you're dead. Simple as that. There's no 'after that' to think about. It'd be ridiculous to believe otherwise."

"Such a cynical take on life and death." Grey walked in front of his control panel and leaned forward. "No paradise for the good or punishment for the bad?"

"The penalty for the bad is realizing how much they've wasted their lives." Hugh shrugged and shivered. "The so-called good don't really exist so they get nothing."

Grey quirked a brow at that, watching his specimen pace steadily faster as the temperature dropped to what he had set it to. "No such thing as good? Then what is bad? How can we have a negative without a positive to reference it to?"

"Good and bad are objective terms malleable to perspective." This was like debate club all over again. Except he wasn't the least bit in control of anything but his own responses. "Thus, while things like rape, murder, torture, and violence will always be bad things, good is something that can only be defined in each individual's perspective. For instance, Galbatorix thought he was the good guy when he oppressed his country and left it in the hands of assholes while he studied magic. Did this justify his tyranny simply because his ideals had valid points?"

"The execution of that ideology is what went wrong." Pulling a small tablet from his lab coat, Gabriel took down a few notes. _Subject 0115 attempting to verbally disprove the existence of ectoplasmic entities and bring my moral standing into question. The obvious primary goal is freedom; a probable secondary purpose is a psychological self-defense._ "After all, if one could regulate all the unnatural power in the world, the world would be safer. Wouldn't you agree, Hughbert?"

The teen wheeled around to face the man with a spark of anger in his eyes. He somewhat schooled his expression and shook his head. "If only one person is in charge of everything, what's to protect the poor mortals under his rule from his eventual loss of sanity?" Only a complete idiot could miss where that was pointed. "The previous dragon riders were policing the world just fine."

"When the gods walk the earth with no heed for the word of man, man is the one who suffers the consequences. If man were equal to the gods, would they not be safer? Or if the gods gave up their powers?" Gabriel tapped away at his tablet, noting the way Hugh covered his arms. "Everyone should be on equal footing, don't you think Hughbert?" The subject's eyes flashed violet and Gabriel stopped typing.

" _Don't call me Hughbert._ " It was something he always found annoying. Hughbert was for his mom to call him when he fucked up, not for random assholes to talk down to him. Now, he was angry, because it was just another way this douchebag psycho was trying to say that Hugh was lesser. " _Only my parents call me that. And I disagree with you. Say that the gods are actually_ _real,"_ no doubt this whack job read a bunch of Riordan books and assumed it to be the truth. " _The gods are flawed, and humanity more so. Why should humans have such great power when they run a far higher risk of ruining the earth than the gods who have a deeper understanding of it? And if the gods were to give up their power, who would protect the mortals from threats that only the gods could keep at bay?_ "

"Ah but if the so called divine were to impart man with their wisdom, would we not be able to avoid such cataclysm?" Wisps of purple mist curled around the subject's head, though he appeared unaware. "And I shall call you whatever I so wish, Hughbert. Ectoplasmic entities of any variety hardly have the rights to choose their designation."

Hugh roared with indignation, orchid colored flames dancing down his arms and to the fists he slammed against the containment field. He rose in the air; his arms felt numb, but the focus of his attention was punching that self-righteous, sickeningly inquisitive look off of the doctor's face. " _ **Don't call me that, you asylum reject! Ghosts don't exist, and my name is HUGH!**_ "

"Then how are you levitating 90 centimeters off the ground, spewing purple flames from your hands?" Gabriel watched with wide eyes and grinned as the subject looked down and yelped in shock. The flames dissipated, the young man fell to his back, and the monitoring equipment notified a sudden rise in lactic acid within the subject's muscles, as well as increased cardiorespiratory function. "You're going to be a fascinating study."

* * *

"I could make it there in minutes, but their defenses could keep me out in ghost form." Danny paced around the hologram that showed the GIW headquarters blueprints. All they could get was a quick scan of the top most floors, and not much was revealed by any of that. "If you guys help me without a way of masking your identities then you'll be considered felons, again. We can't exactly help this Hugh guy if we're locked up."

"What allies can you gather who would be willing to run that risk, Danny?" Jazz knew her baby brother, and he wasn't likely to risk those most loyal to him in the Zone. "Us on the earth side of things are least likely to be killed if caught. The defenses are made to deal with ghosts, either for elimination or capture."

"The Red Huntress _did_ say she wouldn't kill a halfa since the halves are linked." Tucker tapped his PDA on an offbeat as he thought. "We could have Phantom ask her to help free a new half ghost from the GIW?"

"Except," Danny started quickly, interrupting whatever Sam was about to claim regarding Valerie's morality. "She won't kill a human, and this rescue states the possibility of that happening. We would never kill anybody, but Val doesn't know that. She's not likely to help us against human beings, probably assuming I'm trying to use her emotions toward Danielle to get her to help me bust out some friend of mine."

"What about Pandora?" Sam questioned. The thought of that poor guy being locked up just because he's different set a fire in her mind. "Miss Hope queen has Greek myths on her side, and she might be able to help bypass the security with well-placed ectoblasts. She's powerful enough."

"Frostbite could help too," Tuck suggested, typing up a virus on his PDA to upload into the system of the GIW. If he could get close enough, he could fuck over their security, monitoring, and containment systems. "The Far Frozen and you combined could go nuclear winter on the base."

"It's in the dessert. Too hot for non-hot core ghosts to go to for extended periods of ti-" Danny snapped into Phantom form as soon as the wisp left his mouth. Ectorifles were aimed where he pointed a brightly glowing finger. They were lowered when a head of white hair popped out of that spot. "Elle?" The elder half ghost wrapped his cousin up in a hug as soon as her torso was above the floorboards. "What are you doing here? We almost blasted your head off."

"I came to visit my favorite cousin," she responded with a laugh before looking around the room and taking in the grim atmosphere. "But I get the feeling I came at a bad time." She pulled away from the hug, leaning against a wall with her hands in her pockets. Tucker was typing away on his PDA, Sam was putting a disassembled ecto rifle back together, Jazz was holding a book with dark red binding and Danny looked exhausted. "You look like shit, by the way."

"And here I was going to compliment that rat's nest you call hair," Danny snorted and transformed back into Fenton, the grinning homunculus doing the same. "I have a comb I never use if you wanna try it out. But yeah, we're currently planning a tactical assault on enemy territory." Elle's eyes widened, and Danny nodded. "The GIW have captured a new half ghost and-"

"New half ghost?" Elle held up a hand and shook her head. "Can someone fill me in from the beginning? I thought there were only me, you and Vlad for halfas in the worlds?"

"Well," Jazz let out a breath and tried for a smile. "From what I've just been told, the Spirit of Time has told Danny that the Ghost Zone is starting to merge with the Earth and more stable natural portals are going to be popping up, and some more halfas with them. Also, it appears that humans and ghosts can have kids together. So ghosts who found natural portals and went back to be with their lovers found them and conceived children."

"So we've got Portal halfas and natural hybrids starting to pop up." Sam finished for her. "The GIW have discovered one of these halfas and taken them to their headquarters, which we know because of this map that Clockwork gave us. By the way, how'd you get here?" Sam looked over the rifle she put back together and set it down. "Weren't you in South America yesterday?"

"Fido helped me get back to the States through a portal he dug up," Elle shrugged, sitting on the floor instead of the air. "I felt like visiting since I haven't in a while. Can I help with this assault on the GIW?"

"How trained are you in combat?" Danny spoke up quicker than anyone. "After all, you may have taken me down, but my back was turned to you and my power focused on Plasmius. I haven't seen you in a real fight yet, and I don't want it to be against these anti-ghost nazis." He folded his arms when he saw the insulted defiance in her eyes. Danny cared about Elle like a family member, even if they barely saw each other in person. Anyone could handle most ghost hunters on the streets outside of Amity, since they were morons and used EMF detectors instead of the ectoplasmic radars that his parents made. But in Amity, against hunters like Valerie, the Drs. Fenton, and worse, against an army like the GIW, Danny didn't want her in the fight unless he knew she could handle herself.

"I'm as fast as you, as strong as you, and I can put out just as much power." Elle glared at her cousin, refusing to be put in the back seat of what sounded like the makings of war. She could be useful, and he wasn't going to stop her from doing anything. "Plus, I know a few things that I bet you don't know. Like how to see something that's invisible."

"You're not as fast as me," Danny denied with little hesitation. "I checked with a speedometer on my wrist once. I just didn't want to go too fast in a populated area, since needlessly bursting eardrums tends to drop your public approval ratings it." The elder halfa tilted his head back and stared at his cousin with bright green eyes. "I can show you exactly why you aren't a match for me in a fight and get a proper judgment on your combat skills at the same time."

"Oh really?" Elle snorted, rolling her eyes and standing up. "And how can you do that, oh great general Phantom?" Elle wasn't sure how to feel about this side of her cousin. Vlad had made it sound like Danny was as much of an idiot as his father, and his goofy playfulness in the fights she had seen him in suggested the same. But this seriousness and caution were nothing like the Danny she knew.

"Well, with some wisdom that I discovered. It turns out that when you leave a duplicate in the Zone, they can absorb enough spectral energy to become self-sustaining. Alpha?" There was a sharp snap as the energy in the room swirled around one point, and a sphere of emerald light appeared between the hybrids. "Head on in, the control center is roomy." Elle nodded in determination and transformed into her Phantom form before walking into the sphere of netherworldly light.

* * *

The room was several shades of orange and brown. Rows of computer consoles littered the place. Across from Elle, there was a bronze door with a pair of keys crossed like swords overtop it. Around her were orbs of orange light, each no larger than a basketball. In the center of the room, with books floating around his head and a computer console in front of him, was her cousin. He was wearing a sea green tunic and blue pants, which looked somehow strange on the teen. "Sup, munchkin?" The duplicate waved, and the book in front of him closed. "According to Prime, you're tryna get in on the action without awesomeness screening."

Several questions that flew through Elle's head, but the one that made its way out was the simplest. "Prime?" Floating forward, she glanced back the way she came and saw the green sphere shrink down like the rest.

"Well, since we figured out that A: I can relay information to him while I'm still existent, and B: My existence is sustainable outside of him, Danny and I decided to go with some kind of designation, ya know? We're trying something out. I'm Alpha; he's Prime." Alpha floated up and grabbed the book that continued to bob at eye level before backing towards the door. "I think it's pretty ok so far. Shall we?"

"Where are we?" Elle walked out into the hallway, looking around in confusion and a bit of wonder. The place felt old, yet welcoming. As if it had been waiting for visitors for so long, it couldn't remember when someone had last set foot in its halls.

"This is a hallway, also called a corridor," Alpha laughed and split off another duplicate, who took the book down one direction while Alpha floated in another. "The rest of the place is called the Palace of Alomora. The Ghost Zone used to be an actual planet, a little bigger than the earth. A whole continent that was the homeland of the Alomorans managed to survive whatever split the planet."

"And this place is in such excellent condition because..." The young hybrid was hardly trying to insult the palace, but it looked as though it had been cleaned just the other day. There wasn't any dust or anything to indicate that it had been abandoned, but Danny Phantom of all people was rarely welcome in any ghost's territory, so it had to have been deserted.

"Because the Spirit of Time came here when I was looking for a place to train halfas who didn't know how to use their powers." Alpha shrugged and stopped at a lobby area littered with chairs and tables. He picked a hall and continued that way. "They didn't want us to have a training area that's a stray ectoblast away from falling, I guess and restored the place to its former glory. There's a cool library here with lots of info on things like making portals and changing clothes on a whim. Look!" He stopped and closed his eyes, the duplicate's aura flaring up before swirling into his clothes. The tunic and pants became pitch black and dotted in pearly white and sunny yellow stars. When he opened his eyes, he looked down and beamed at her. "Isn't that cool?"

"Now you can become a tailor and sell Danny Phantom T-shirts and jeans." Elle laughed and ducked out of the way of a headlock. "But seriously, how bout we get to this whole 'judging my skills' thing? I don't wanna miss out on an important meeting." She turned back the way they came, wondering how Alpha could have memorized a path in just a day. "Maybe you can tell me how you became self-sustaining on the way?"

Alpha rolled his eyes and grabbed onto his cousin. "Hold on tight," he advised with a grin before darting off down the halls at a startling speed. When Elle tried to break out of his grip by force or phasing, she found that neither worked. When they slowed to a stop, she was caught more by her cousin's grip than by her own will. "Now that we're outside, I do believe we'll start the speed test."

While Elle closed her eyes and regained her balance, she heard the shifting of fabric. When she looked again, Alpha was holding a green metal band with a screen in the center that flashed a red zero at her. "Put this on; it's the kind of speedometer I used to test my _real_ top speed. Oh and as far as being self-sustaining? Food is important, even ghosts and spirits. If I hadn't decided to eat something, I'd have burnt through the energy Prime left me with and dissipated."

As she fastened the perfectly fit device on her wrist, the smaller Phantom looked over the cityscape below them. There were houses and buildings of various height all throughout the city, with the smallest being at the edge. "Those can't be any less than five stories tall..." She'd ask about what food Alpha could possilby have eaten later, since she really wanted to focus on racing past him, instead of how hungry she was.

"I'd expect any country's capital city to have the best living conditions, wouldn't you?" Alpha stretched his arms over his head before crouching down into a starting position. "Ready?" Elle took the same stance and focused her power on flying. "Set." Alpha's eyes grew slightly brighter as his own duplicate was absorbed. "GO!" Like a gun shot, the Phantoms sped through the air over the city, and almost immediately Elle realized her disadvantage.

For the first two seconds, they were going at the same speed, and Elle was sure that they'd end in a draw. Likely, since she had grown, but he was older. Two more seconds and Alpha's boots were in front of Elle's face, the duplicate having drifted over so that she could see his advantage as clearly as possible. She grit her teeth and pushed to catch up. She almost got up to his waist before a shockwave knocked her back. The sonic boom had happened for him just before it could for her, and Elle found herself flailing to come to a stop. When she finally did cease her unsteady flight, the ghost girl spotted a swirling vortex of energy. It wasn't thick or large, but she could feel the energy being sucked out of the air and into one spot. It appeared to be another city, smaller yet still impressive. When she touched down, hands on her knees as she caught her breath, he was wearing shamrock armor of a Grecian style and his aura pulsated with freshly gathered energy. "How... the hell... did you move ... so fast?"

"Practice, experience, growth, I ate something from the Zone last night, and that's not my top speed," the white-haired hero counted on his fingers as he spoke, and grinned down at the ghost girl. "Don't tell me that was yours?" He held out a gauntlet-clad hand, and a staff of green matter formed to match Elle's height. "I'm gonna guess at six hundred and forty-something."

Elle glanced down at her speedometer. "six forty-three," she answered shortly. Once she had her second wind, she reached out and grabbed the staff in Alpha's hand. "So I'm not as fast as you like I thought. I'm still just as strong." There was no way Danny could be all that much stronger than her. After all, she was supposed to be a copy of his, as much as it hurt to think that. She had gotten training from Vlad on how much power she needed to beat him, and while she hated Vlad, the guy was smart. He couldn't have been that off about Danny, could he?

"Prove it then," Alpha shrugged and formed a staff of his own, this one made of bright blue ice. "Don't complain if I hurt you during training." Quick as a viper, a foot struck out at Elle. She raised her staff in time to block it but was pushed back by the force put behind the blow. She rose up to swing at his head, but he blocked the strike with one hand on his staff, and it didn't even shake.

"What has the Zone been feeding you?" He struck back, slow enough for her to block, too fast for her to counter. Each attack pushed the ghost girl back towards the trees, where she attempted to use those to her advantage. "I'm also a bit smarter if I do say so myself."

"We can't know that just yet, now can we?" He wove through the trees and struck out at her, clipping Elle's shoulders and sides. "After all, you haven't been around long enough to show if you're better at math, can memorize more words than me, know how to map out an area with little time to familiarize yourself with it," a swing to her legs and Elle was flipping backward to get away from Alpha. "The list goes on. I know more than you. I'm not saying you're dumb; I'm saying that you're like, one year old. A year and a half at best. The same reason why you're not as strong, or as fast, or as wise as I am is the same reason why I am not as powerful as Vlad. Also, there are deer in this forest."

Elle ducked under a swing, sprung up, and threw a glowing fist at Alpha's face. His hand, covered in green metal, caught her fist and stopped the punch entirely, and Elle felt pain course down her arm. "Shit, that hurts!" She pulled but couldn't free her hand, even when she got the leverage of Alpha's chest beneath her boots. "Let go, now."

"Are you pulling with everything you've got, Elle?" There was a strange and scary lack of emotion in Alpha's voice, and she pulled harder. He loosened his grip, and the smaller hybrid went flying. Something pulled her to a stop before she could hit the bark of the nearest tree, but Elle was more concerned with her hand. "Are you getting it yet? You showed me just now that you're not ready for war, and I'm not putting you through one at this level of skill, let alone strength and speed. I could dodge a bullet by now if I had to." His fist was in her face so fast that she heard the snap of the air moving out of its way. "You can't. My top lifting strength so far is about twenty-five tons, thirty when I need to hold something up so that someone can get away from a heavy falling object. Like a building."

"Well," Elle huffed out a breath and sagged against the tree behind her. She looked down while Alpha's armor faded away into his green and blue outfit from before. She had her powers for almost as long as Danny had his, and had even gotten training from the oldest half-ghost they knew. She should have been better than this. "If you're so much stronger than me, then show me how to get stronger."

"It's not just about being strong, Elle." Alpha sat down on a log and sighed. "There's a saying in one of Sam's sappy goth poems that I feel fits this little lesson here. Hope and knowledge are nothing without the will and the strength to use them. Strength and willpower are nothing without the skill and wisdom to use them suitably. If you had the same skill as me with a staff, you could have beaten me. You could have turned invisible, and I'd have had to track down your ectosignature, giving you time to attack. In a battle, your enemy isn't going to be holding back like I was. Though, I wasn't holding all that much back. You're stronger than I made you look." He grinned before his face went cold. "Gotta work on that poker face, cuz." The grin was back in place and he ruffled the younger's hair. "I give your awesomeness rating a nine out of fourteen. Level up again, and we'll talk about combat in a war."

"That was holding back?" Elle's eyes widened in shock, and she leaned her head against her tree. "Ugh, how can I help you if I'm so far behind?" She shifted her head and looked directly into Alpha's eyes. "That wasn't a rhetorical question, Alpha. How can I help? I'm not sitting on the sidelines, doing nothing while there's one of us trapped in the GIW's clutches. I have to be able to help you guys save him."

"You can help by teaching me whatever you've learned over the year that you've been out in the world," Alpha suggested after a moment of thought. "Any new tricks could help. And you can also help by sticking around and learning a thing or two from Prime and me. After all, moral support from our favorite cousin is always appreciated." They grinned at each other and shook hands before Alpha sat ramrod straight. "Fuck, I need to get back to the control room. Come on."

The duplicate scooped the homunculus up, shot into the sky, and soared straight for the palace. In seconds, they were back in the control room, and Elle was set down with her back to a wall while Alpha ran to the control panel and scanned information that would have likely had Elle's head spinning twice as much as it was now. "Prime, the football field, get there before someone gets caught in it!"

* * *

 **So! Hugh is royally fucked. And I mean it. The GIW know about his human face, so even if Danny and the others can get to him (and I say if because the good guys _do not_ always win) the poor guy still has nowhere he can go on Earth anymore. I'm cruel.**

 **Febe _will_ come next, no worries, along with someone I think you all will appreciate as an awesome addition to the roster of halfas that got turned by portals.**

 **Elle is weaker than she really is in this little sparring session. Why? She's not had enough food, she tired herself out trying to keep up with Alpha, and he was moving fast enough to keep her from thinking up the tricks that she learned from the shamans (yes, that is a thing that is in all of my fics unless otherwise states) so she's not at full strength. TO THE REVIEWS**

 **Invader Johnny: my friend, the war is about to truly begin. the real worriesome part? _how will Vlad react to knowing about hugh?_**

 **P3tr1ch0rcrypt1dl0re: I AM WEEPING WITH JOY thank you so much for this compliment, it is beyond amazing and I wish you great luck and the favor of Calliope.**

 **Lobisomen616: Still, thank you.**

 **SO I read riordan books, he's my favorite author and my dudes, if i make any references that seem to be ones to the Percy Jackson series or the Kane Chronicles or the Trials of Apollo or Magnus Chase well... it's entirely on purpose. or maybe an accident.**

Green: the universal color of Safety


	9. Decisions to make, lives to save

**Hello my beautiful readers, how have you been? I bring to you a tale of wonder, magic, and horrors that are best left untold. But I'll tell you anyways. So, who can guess who the lucky new half ghost is? Anyone? Anyone at all? Oh well, you'll find out soon enough. Also, max velocity and max acceleration are technically two different things...**

 **...HIS MOLECULES GOT ALL REARRANGED!**

* * *

Danny shot into the air and looked around frantically. _Prime,_ crowed the voice of his duplicate, _the football field, get there before someone gets caught in it!_ Danny flew like a bullet for the green of the football field. The spectral power in the air twisted towards that spot just as it had when Alpha demonstrated his new knowledge regarding the portal command center back at the palace. A natural portal was forming, and Danny prayed he would be fast enough to keep anyone out of it. A green light sparked into existence, just like on That day, and Danny found his power being drawn out of him just like it was being pulled from the atmosphere. He was slowing down to keep from turning them into red stains on the grass, but when he focused on decelerating, his strength was yanked out of him and into the portal. He called out something, hopefully, "Get away."

There were two players where the power coalesced, a sphere of light dividing them. Danny pushed for his power to stay within him and propel him forward just a bit faster. One of the footballers shoved his teammate away from the light just in time. Danny, two feet away, was still too late. Jock number 88 may have gotten number 4 (thank the ancients Dash didn't get that kind of power) out of the way, but he was still too close.

The air was rent open by the world beyond with a crack so loud that it could be felt for miles. A scream, sickeningly familiar, echoed across the field and everyone stopped and stared as Danny Phantom was halted by the shockwave of a portal opening. He pushed forward in the next moment, raising a dome of light over the portal and the player, thick enough to obscure them from sight. "Shit, shit, shit, shit!" Danny pulled off the now smoking black and green helmet and rolled the singed player onto his side. "Kwan, Kwan talk to me." He shook the other sophomore gently until bright red eyes blinked open. Danny let out a sigh, both in relief that Kwan was at least conscious, and in anger towards himself for being too slow.

Kwan had other thoughts on his mind. The first thing he did when he found the energy was groan in pain. He couldn't scream again yet, but he was trying to. Everything burned, from his skin to his bones. And he shouldn't have been able to feel his bones! He looked down at his hand, and the black glove had turned white. He would have inspected further, but he was too damned tired to move much. Phantom was rambling on and on about Alpha and Vulcan, but all Kwan wanted to do was sleep. Something cold, like a winter breeze, washed over his body, and Kwan passed out.

"...halfa. He's popular, so we'll need to come up with an alibi when we can get to him. For now, I'm gonna have to pull back and leave a duplicate to overshadow whoever gets his blood test results, since we can't have mom and dad finding out that someone has ectoplasm in their veins." Danny lifted the now human jock away from the portal and dropped his shield. When Tetzlaff came up to question him, he held up a hand and shook his head. "This ghost portal could be leaking ectoplasmic radiation all over the place, worse than what was already here. Plus, it's a new location for ghosts to pop up, so this school needs to be quarantined until it closes... if it closes." He said the last part to himself since he had no idea if the portal was stable enough to stay open permanently, or if it would just vanish like all the other natural portals.

Handing Kwan off to the teacher, Danny zoomed into the air, disappearing from sight. He duplicated and headed home, leaving a duplicate to follow the only friendly football player that they knew of in the school.

* * *

Exhaustion wasn't the right word for what Hugh was feeling, but he didn't have the energy to think up a fancier one. Yellow light dissipated, security officers surged in and picked him up, but he didn't find any of that as important as getting air into his lungs. His chest was heaving, sweat poured out of every pore, and his muscles burned as though he had just finished a triathlon. Cold seeped into his back from the metal table that he had awoken to yesterday, and the sensation was such a relief that he almost didn't mind the leather straps binding him to the slab.

While the subject was restrained on the examination table, Frank held up his tablet, showing the information he had gathered overnight. Sleep was for people without discoveries to make. "His vitals are that of someone going through mild hypothermia. He should have gotten back to a normal temperature and heart rate by the time he woke up."

"And yet, he has the ability to manifest ectoplasmic energy. Though, it appears to have burned through what few calories he might have in him." The heart monitor came to life and gave off rapid beeps to match the pounding in their subject's chest. "He seems to be suffering from exhaustion."

"The ectoplasm could have bonded itself to his cells instead of knocking his DNA out of alignment," Mohinder, a darker-skinned man with an Indian accent and curly brown hair, activated the holographic projections and grabbed a glucometer. With practiced ease, he pricked the subject's fingertip and showed the results to his colleagues. "His glucose levels are near comatose levels."

Gabriel's eyes glittered with mild interest. "So they are. I'd say he doesn't have long if that keeps up. The ectoplasmic charge will burn through him and he'll die." His tone held a bit of disappointment, but not much else. After all, Gabriel only cared about this specimen as a point of research. It wouldn't be the first time an ectoplasmic entity expired on them. "There's only a one in a million chance of something like him happening again."

"Perhaps not." Eyes shifted to Mohinder as the guards took up position at the door and their helpers waited for instruction from Gabriel. "What if more like him pop up? We could even figure out how to replicate and control this incident - aid humanity in its next evolutionary step. And we could manufacture defenses against beings such as Mr. Guttermuth, should the need to do so arise." Mohinder knew his friend like the back of his hand, and Gabriel wouldn't prolong the existence of any ectoplasmic entity without gain for himself or humanity. "This young man could be turned into our trump card, Gabriel."

"And if you're planning to allow him to expire," Frank added on as he readied a sample of blood he had drawn whilst Mohinder rambled about saving the specimen. "At least let me get a look at his other systems. The subject's blood work is fascinating, but I'd like to examine the rest of him before he fades. Or dies. Whichever happens to a hybrid." He tilted his head to the side and hummed. "I wonder which will happen?"

Gabriel considered the words of his colleagues, eyes going over the holographic display of the subject's vitals. While letting the thing die would be the easiest thing to do, and give Frank a chance to study the effects of ectoplasm on individual parts of the body in further depth, Mohinder had a point. If this subject could be stabilized, so could potentially any other human being. They'd be capable of countless things, and no otherworldly force could present a danger to them ever again. Gabriel turned his gaze to the geneticist and offered a small smile. "Frank, you'll have to wait your turn. Mo, I want subject 0115's genome mapped out ASAP, and check new samples to view any changes on a regular basis."

"Damn," Frank snapped his fingers in mock disappointment. "I've got bloodwork to do. Keep me posted on the subject." He left the room to his own station with a contemplative hum. "If we're finding out how to stabilize the mutation, I still get to examine him. I'll just have to be more careful."

Hugh wanted the voices to stop talking, the sights to stop burning, he just wanted everything to stop. The green and silver lights began to blur in his vision, along with everything else. Hugh felt relief wash over him as his senses began to numb. A mass of brown hovered over him now, and he could only make out some words. It sounded like he owed someone gratitude. "Thank you." Gratitude paid, Hugh embraced unconsciousness like a warm blanket.

* * *

 _She looked at them with wide eyes, tears blurring her vision. There they were, looking not as though they had been violently murdered, but perfectly healthy. Blue, glowing, floating a few centimeters off the ground, but otherwise healthy. They looked back, expressions of joy and shock practically painted on their faces. "Febe?" Amir whispered, before launching himself at her. She wrapped him in her arms and wept with joy as her parents embraced her in turn. They were finally together again. The thoughts of goddesses and death faded away and were replaced with relief._

Febe brought with her only the clothing that she had, the brush that crossed over with her, and the locket that her brother had given her as soon as he could. It was crafted from the sands around them, little Amir having learned how to heat the grains into glass. The small glass orb that hung within an asymmetrical metal frame appeared to hold a mauve mist within, shimmering like waves of heat.

Leaving the new home filled up by her family had been hard, but Febe knew that if she didn't do as told, Seshat could either cast her out or destroy her. Worse, her family might suffer.

The cheetah led her to a spacious area contained within a ring of sandstone. Painted targets and mannequins stood on one side of the room. Several tables littered the space and upon them lay books and writing utensils, bladed weapons, telescopes and binoculars, and what appeared to be a schedule. With nowhere to sit, Febe simply stood, waiting for Lady Seshat to come and study her while teaching her.

When Seshat arrived, Febe could tell before the doors opened. There was this pressure in the air that came off the cheetahs to some degree. From the goddess, this pressure was suffocating. It was the scent of blood and the stare of authority mixed with the growling of a predatory beast and radiated from Seshat in a way that Febe's brain struggled to process. These new senses were irritating and scary.

Seshat opened the door, and Febe stood ramrod straight, doing her best to keep a neutral face. Surely a goddess of wisdom would not want to see unneeded emotions on the face of her student. Seshat nodded to Febe, who bowed before returning to her respectful posture. " _Febe_ ," she began after a moment of scanning the hybrid's body. " _I told you that I'd be studying you whilst I teach you, did I not?_ "

"Y-yes ma'am," blue hair danced at the edge of Febe's vision as she nodded.

" _Tell me, then, why I would want my subject of study to be inhabitually stoic? Or more expressive than usual?_ " Febe got the message and let her worry show in the furrow of her brow and the frown she was fighting off. " _Now, the first thing we should cover will involve visiting the Earth._ " Seshat snapped her fingers, and someone walked through the doors that the two had entered through. He was around the same height as Febe, perhaps a few centimeters taller. His skin was a pastel purple, and his eyes glittered green. He bowed low to Seshat and nodded in acknowledgment to Febe. " _Miftah, you shall accompany Febe to the Earth and make sure that her human needs are met. Once done, you shall return to the classroom._ "

He bowed to her once more and smiled. "Yes, lady Seshat. Shall we, Febe?" He extended a hand to the ghost girl and lead her out of the room when she took it. He wore an open green vest over a long-sleeved violet shirt and long brown pants. The teenaged spirit turned to look at Febe once the doors to the classroom closed and frowned. Indigo irises appeared like dots on a green sheet of paper. "So, ghost, you're still part human?" Febe pulled her hand back immediately, not liking his tone.

"Lady Seshat says that I am, though I'm not sure how that is possible." She shrugged, floating forward with the other. "Did you ever make peace with the fact that you died, or are you still searching for something you lost in life?" She looked over at Miftah, curious about how this whole spirit thing worked. After all, several different people have tried to guess what the afterlife is like, but no one knew until they went there.

It wasn't something she thought of as an overly rude thing to ask but Miftah's eyes widened and grew brighter yet darker at the same time. He bared his teeth in a scowl and flew ahead of the ghost girl. "I am not a ghost, I am a spirit. Unlike you, I was born to this beautiful land, instead of being given a second chance to throw away something as precious as life." He opened the doors to the outside and gestured. "Now, are you coming, or do I have to drag you back to your filthy world of chaos and violence?"

Febe stopped, floating idly, and glared at the boy that had been assigned to guide her. "What's your problem with ghosts, asshole? Whether you were born here or not shouldn't matter, not when we're both made of the same stuff." She raised her hand and waved it around. "Glowing flesh and green blood. If we were both to bleed right now, it would be impossible to tell which was which, would it not?"

Miftah reached out and indigo light wrapped around Febe's own violet radiance, his will dragging her towards the door. "Spirits are more powerful and are the true form of life in this world. You ghosts are only here until you can fulfill what you couldn't in life, and usually, you can't." When Febe pushed forward on her own, he released her and floated faster. "When you come to the realization that you can't fulfill your precious obsessions, you become violent. It's irritating, and a bit repulsive. Ghosts have tunnel vision, and I can't stand it. Now, let's get to that portal you opened up, shall we?" They had reached the edge of the city, and he rose higher into the air. "Or do you need a moment of rest? I hear younger ghosts are prone to exhaustion."

Febe glared at the pompous jerk and met his altitude. "I can manage. I'm the one who knows the way to the portal, though, so I'll have to lead." She gave a mocking half-bow and zipped in front of Miftah with a roll of her eyes. "Oh, great spirit Miftah." She darted off across the sands, knowing that her escort was mere decimeters behind her.

* * *

After Vlad left his meeting, he went straight to a computer to check on his spy cameras. If Daniel was doing something particularly stupid, he might have to intervene. "He's growing in power, that much is obvious to anyone watching him. Though, with that power has come recklessness. I'll have to drill a new lesson into him soon if he oversteps his boundaries." When he loaded up the feeds from his cameras, he expected to see the teen playing video games with his friends or complaining about homework that never got finished. Instead, he got a black screen. "What?" The hybrid's fingers flew over the keyboard, and he played the last recorded transmissions of his cameras.

Daniel flew around the room with a PDA in hand. With a few glances down at the device's screen, he picked tiny objects off of the ceiling, the walls, and furniture that never got moved otherwise. Finally, the camera he was getting the feed from was picked up as well. A flash of green, and nothing. "Well damn, it appears young Daniel has found me out. I suspect I'll be hearing about that soon. Corvus, remind me to upgrade the security system again." After an affirmative from his electronic servant, Vlad turned on the news while bringing up a file with his latest projects. He'd have to give that Damon Grey a raise and promotion soon. The idiot who demoted him would also need to be fired for his incompetence. "Honestly, what security can adequately account for such an unknown factor? Damon's system was flawless otherwise and with this, I'll ensure that everything is secure and that miss Grey doesn't start pestering me about increases in payment." While checking off his lists, Vlad caught the infamous prefix 'ecto, ' and his attention was brought to the television.

"... _scientists Jackson and Madeline Fenton were on the scene moments after it happened to ensure all students on the field were cleansed of any ectoplasmic contamination. Unfortunately, even with the intervention of local hero Danny Phantom, one player was still injured in the event. Kwan Shanliang is currently in the hospital being tested for any serious contamination. Previous cases of..._ " Vlad stopped listening and turned to his computer once more.

A portal to the Ghost Zone had opened on the football field of the town's high school. Apparently, Daniel had been there when it opened, having told the players to move just a second too late. "That cannot be a coincidence. No one could know where and when a portal would open beside the Far Frozen tribe. The only question is why he was using it to check for natural portals." A scan through the footage revealed Daniel and his friends preparing for a trip into the Zone, with Jasmine making excuses to cover their absences. The girl had improved in her lying ability, he had to admit. "Take out my cameras if you wish, Daniel. I have eyes and ears everywhere. Now then, I do believe I should pay a visit to the poor, injured student. After all, who knows what can happen to you when you're caught in the blast of a portal?"

* * *

Returning to the room, Danny punched his wall and glared up at the glow in the dark stickers on his ceiling. "Damnit! I was so close!" He grasped his hair and tugged at it, pacing around the room immediately. "Half a second sooner and I could have grabbed Kwan and kept him from becoming a halfa. Now he's gonna be the target of people like Skulker, and Mom and Dad are the ones in charge of overseeing his treatment." Danny slumped against his wall with a sigh. "I can't overshadow either of them for long, their wills are too strong."

"You managed to overshadow your dad for the whole dance when you found out about your overshadowing power, though," Sam pointed out, scribbling away in her notebook. "That was back in month two of your powers. Why can't you do it now?"

"Overshadowing is a weird ability. I don't like to use it, mostly cause of how creepy it is to take someone's willpower away, but also because it's pretty hard to do that." Danny attempted to distract himself by forming small balls of plasma, which orbited him like tiny moons. "If Dad knew I was overshadowing him, like he did with Vlad, I woulda been ejected like a bad DVD, and I was hungry as hell after that too." Danny shuddered for a moment at the memory. "Dad needs to stop obsessing over fudge. Anyway, Mom is too strong willed period. I tried overshadowing her once to keep her from calling Sam's parents and not only did she push me out, she slapped me with her lightsaber staff thing." The halfa's hand unconsciously rubbed at a spot on his cheek. "I dunno what I'm gonna do there."

"I know what I'm gonna do," Tucker popped the joints in his neck. "First, I upload a bug to the software of the hospital so that we can look in on Kwan's medical records. You'll help me with getting into the Fenton notes-"

"We don't add 'Fenton' to the end of everything," Danny argued. Jazz rolled her eyes and poked his side.

"They are, in fact, called the Fenton notes, Danny." The redhead snorted at her brother's betrayed look. "Pick your battles, little brother."

"That's actually what I was getting at." Tucker turned to Danny with a frown. "Which are you gonna put our focus on, dude? Are we bustin Hugh out first, or is Kwan taking priority? I can put the virus on hold and concentrate on keeping Kwan's hybrid status out of the public eye, but only if you're one hundred percent sure."

"Regardless of which decision you make, we're behind you, Danny," Jazz assured, watching as a fifth plasma ball appeared around her brother. "I think that we should focus on Hugh first, though. Kwan's condition could take months to deal with, while Hugh needs a quick break out."

"If we grab Hugh and get him out, it'll be easier for us when I propose an ecto rights law to the mayor." All eyes darted to Sam, who didn't look up from her writing. "I know the law better than anyone here, and I'm our best bet at making sure that halfas are safe here in Amity Park at the very least. Vlad will agree to a law that covers his own ass, and then I'll work my way up to state and then regional. If we have Hugh with us to give testament to the horrors that the GIW are likely putting him through, we'll have a solid case to either have them shut down or put under a microscope by the world."

"And if Hugh's case is made public and the world finds out about half-ghosts, they'll be forced to either reject or accept them. When Kwan's halfa status becomes too obvious to hide, he'll be protected by the law, along with me, Vlad, and all the other halfas." Danny looked at the map in the center of the room. He could risk a life for secrecy, or risk capture for future legal protection.

He made his choice.

* * *

 **So, I notice that I'm doing cliffies in a repetitive manner. Well actually, RW thought that, I just agree with them after reading over my stuff. But yeah, Danny was _just_ almost fast enough, Kwan is a _FAR_ better choice on the list of "Which popular shall I give superpowers to" and the GIW plan on keeping Hugh, for experimentation purposes of course. Oh, and Febe is still a thing. I almost forgot about her. Did you? Ah well. She's back, and I'm gonna try to keep it up with the whole continuity thing. **

**QueenofHearts7378: Galbatorix was a great example, in my opinion, of what the GIW are. trying to control the world by taking all of the power under their own hand and stopping others from ever having such abilities.**

 **InvaderJohnny: Shit has not yet truly hit the fan my friend, that comes with the rescue. after all, the pieces are simply falling into place. who knows how things will play out?**

 **Jacobfrit: here ya go!**

 **and finally, my fav review to answer.**

 **Dear jim89:** **Not only that, but with this in-between it's really up to the authorities to decide whether or not he's a human being, a ghost, or some new species that drifts in between until/unless the public discovers the atricities that have been performed upon this young child. ;** **Am I planning a GIW genocide assault on Geistaeal? ... I cannot say, that's spoiling. ;** **Val wouldn't attack the GIW unless she knew for absolute sure that there was a halfa being held and tortured there, and Danny can't prove that without revealing everything to her. She hasn't earned that trust just yet. just like he hasn't earned her trust. Sam and Val aren't exactly going to be going on bonding trips anytime soon, unfortunately. ;** **Also, even the great Danny Phantom has to be tactical sometimes. They can't just nuke it all, cause there's ghosts and a halfa in there, as well as human lives that would be ended. They don't have time to grab everyone and get them out before blowing it all up, otherwise, they'd do that. ;** **Fido won't go too far without more incentive, but you do have a point. I wasn't exactly thinking that much about Fido's transportational ability. The results aren't as accurate as you might think ;) I mean, of course they wanna keep her outta the battle. Elle is actually more capable of ghost and spirit fighting than Danny is potentially, but I'll let the skills she discovered reveal themselves in Time. Also, Elle now lives in that palace with Alpha. that's practically a given, so no point in not saying it. ;** **Plus, while Danny needs help with his hand-to-hand, Val is unlikely to give help with that unless she's in on the secret. Meanwhile, Jazz is also a blackbelt in my stories (it's been shown in canon that she knows how to fight and has since Danny was like eight or something) so she can help in that.**

 _ **heavy breathing**_ **. So much response writing. Ok, so, I'm likely going to be on this schedule: A chapter each month is all I shall promise you, and even that is iffy. I'm tryin out a new thing, so hopefully it helps.**


	10. Power, needs, and friends

**Ok so, hello my lovely readers, how are you all? I have found a really cool thing called outlining and I feel like an idiot for never even trying it. I also feel like this story is at that point where it's about to derail because I didn't plan ahead, so see the end for what I plan on doing after this chapter, and enjoy if you please.**

 **WHEN HE FIRST WOKE UP, HE HAD REALIZED...**

* * *

"To do this, I'll need to be able to avoid the cameras but also the ectoplasmic energy detectors." Danny drew in the air with his ectoplasm, making a rough sketch of what he was thinking of. "Something that'll dampen my ectosignature to as low as it is in human form. That way, I can sneak into the base undetected and grab Hugh. First thing I'll do is plug in the USB with Tucker's virus-"

"No, I will upload my own virus, thank you very much." Tucker looked up from his typing for a moment to give his friend a playful glare. "Don't think you can take the glory for dismantling the GIW from me."

Danny snorted and nodded, waving away the full body example and focusing on the individual parts of the core of the suit. "I'll make two suits then, and while Tuck is uploading the virus, I'll find Hugh and get him out. We'll need Tuck to guide me to his cell anyway, so that's actually a great idea."

"Do we have any weapons to deal with humans?" Sam pulled out her phone and quickly scrolled through the list of weapons they had. "And I mean deal with them quickly. A pretty potent, odorless knockout gas would probably do the trick."

"Sam, do you want to come with me to find something in the Zone that can serve as knockout gas?" Danny grinned when the goth smirked at him. "Good, I want to know what plants to avoid as well. Jazz, think you can keep Amity covered with the Red Huntress while we're doing this?"

"Is there any doubt, little brother?" Jazz set down her notebook and smiled. "Not only that, but I'll try and prepare to help Hugh deal with whatever trauma that he's currently experiencing. Who knows what the GIW are doing to him?"

"Illegal things that are going to get them thrown in jail for the rest of their lives and possibly their afterlives," Sam growled as she snapped her book shut. "C'mon Danny, I want to get to work right away. Jazz, you and Tucker have the city covered, for now, right?"

"Yeah," Tucker answered before Jazz had the chance. "Plus, we'll call if we need you and Alpha will open up a portal for you. Now go, make out in the Specter Speeder under the pretense of searching for ghost plants." Tucker made a shooing motion and ducked when a spider bag was thrown at him. "Hey, writing a dangerous virus that could wipe the entire internet clean here. Please don't make me fuck up the keystrokes."

Sam rolled her eyes as Danny phased them down to the lab with a chuckle. "We'll be back asap." When they entered the lab, Sam headed into the speeder while Danny opened up the portal. "Honestly, Sam, why do you still react to him teasing us about that? It's not like we actually have any romantic feelings for each other."

"I'm just sick of Tucker's consta- dodge!" Sam pulled out an ectopistol when Klemper shot out of the portal with a scream of 'WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND?'

The ice ghost wrapped around Danny in a bearhug and the hero hauled them out of the lab and up to the streets above. "Will you be my friend?!" Klemper shouted and whimpered once again. Phantom coated himself in a bit of ectoplasm and pushed it out as a bubble for some much-needed space. "Please be my friend!"

Danny heaved a sigh as Tucker took aim with a lipstick laser. "Klemper, go back to the Zone before I have to shove you back in." The blue skinned ghost pouted up at the hero and Danny glared at him. "Now. I don't want the Fentons coming home and capturing you. They'd do some pretty horrific things to you if they caught you."

Klemper raised a hand with a dimly glowing snowball as frost trailed down his cheeks instead of tears. "Stop!" They did. Danny and Klemper turned to see Jazz standing just outside of Fenton Works. She had a specter deflector on, but that was it. "Danny, I can't believe you never told me about this poor man." Danny opened his mouth to complain about her going through his files but thought better of it when he saw his sister's glare. Now was not the time.

Jazz took a few steps forward and offered Klemper a kind smile. "You just want a friend, right? Not to hurt anyone or cause destruction?" The blond nodded and slowly hovered to the eldest Fenton sibling. "Well, I'll be your friend then, but only if you promise not to cause the next ice age in Amity Park." Klemper gasped, his mouth stretching into a smile so wide that Jazz thought it looked painful. He rushed towards her and the psychiatrist in training altered the settings on her specter deflector. Instead of tasing a ghost upon contact, it would nullify any harmful abilities, including intangibility and levitation. The lonely ghost pulled Jazz into a hug, not caring one bit that gravity had suddenly taken hold. It was like being hugged by her father, so while she was a bit winded, the red head could deal with it.

"I HAVE A FRIEND!" Klemper was crying with glee. It had been so long since he had any sort of companionship, and now he had made a friend who kept him from getting beat up! This was the best day of his afterlife, so he hugged her tighter.

"Klemper, humans need air," Jazz wheezed out, breathing in relief when her new friend let go. "Now, I can't exactly talk all the time at home, but if you can come to the library on Wednesdays and Fridays, I'd be happy to hang out with you." She smiled and gave the blond a pat on his back. "Just please, be discreet, so no one gets scared?"

"Ok! I promise, I'll be a great friend! Thank you, Jazz!" At least half the ghosts involved with Phantom knew the names of his family members. And now, Klemper had her as a friend! "I'll see you then!" He hugged her again before diving for the portal.

Jazz then turned on Danny and raised a brow. "Why are you still floating there and staring? You have work to do in the Far Frozen. Shoo." She waved him off with a smile. It was her 'we will speak of this later' smile. Danny took his cue and followed Klemper into the basement, sitting in the pilot seat next to Sam before zooming off towards the Far Frozen.

Jazz walked back into the house and found herself grinning smugly when she saw the look on Tucker's face. "What? I'm trying to become a psychiatrist, and I've had to learn how to pick up on what signs mean what when I'm lying to Mom and Dad. Hearing a ghost shout 'be my friend' is an obvious sign that he's lonely. Why none of you even tried befriending him is beyond me." She sat down and opened her notebook. "You get back to your virus while I come up with a way to give therapy to someone who's going to come out of this with PTSD for sure."

* * *

When Febe and Miftah reached the portal, the ghost girl stared at the swirling vortex of gold-tinged peridot with apprehension. Febe hadn't realized that how right she was about knowing the way. When she thought of going back to Earth, she simply knew which way to go. Of course, she wasn't going to admit that she hadn't seen the portal when she woke in the Duat to her escort. "Well? Are you going to head in, or do I need to push you?" She glared at Miftah and curled her fingers up into a fist.

"How do I know you won't simply close the portal after I cross into the land of the living? I'll be stranded, away from my family, for all eternity." She crossed her arms loosely, floating on the left of the gateway. She could feel it reaching out, a sort of pull to go back to the land of the living.

Miftah huffed out a breath and shook his head. "Stupid, paranoid… no, little girl, I'm not going to do that. It would go against the orders of Lady Seshat, and I can't close this portal. Few can create or collapse a gateway to the other worlds, and I'm not one of them." Mudrite apparently didn't believe him, so the young spirit pinched the bridge of his nose and flew through the portal.

The other side was… strange. He felt gravity pushing down against him far more intensely than in the Duat. It was like the planet wanted to drag him to its depths and burn him in its molten core. The atmosphere was thick and musty, dust covering the spirit's skin and clothes. A wave of intangibility fixed that for a moment, but there was so much of the stuff that he had to stay that way to remain clean. The room lit up with magical torchlight, and he moved around the tables and sat hovering in the air over one of the chairs.

A moment or two after Miftah crossed, Febe took a hesitant step through. As soon as the entirety of her form was through, a band of white light appeared around her center, and the ghost was human. She fell to her knees and gasped in a now much-needed breath. Her lungs and heart started back up in overtime, compensating for the long-term inactivity.

Her chest felt like it was being pounded upon like drums, her heart pumping too fast too suddenly. She clutched her chest, twisting up the scratchy fabric trying to make it slow down. She breathed in and could only feel dust, couldn't get any air. Something was blocking up her throat, blocking out the air and no matter how hard she coughed, it wouldn't leave her. She had to breathe again, but she couldn't breathe. Fingers clawed at her throat with every failed attempt to draw in air, and the world around her spun with it's oppressing weight. Darkness filled her vision like the dust in her lungs, and she coughed harder.

An indigo light filled her vision, and another pressure was on her chest now. The chill of the grave and a tingle that made everything feel numb seeped into her skin, flowed along her veins and coiled around something in her chest. Some part of her, deeper than conscious thought, reached out for the lightning bolt of a raging blizzard and grasped it with all her might. The lighting surged through her body, freezing her veins and coiling around her frantic heart in a deathly grip that forced it to stop. Finally, the air didn't need to go in, only out, and her throat began to clear.

When she opened her eyes and looked around, she saw Miftah's hand had moved to her own, and he was helping her rise into a standing position. "Do me a favor, ok?" He scowled at her and sighed. "Please try not to die all the way while you're under my care. I'm here to help you, and I don't want to fail because you couldn't remember how to breathe."

Febe glared at Miftah while shaking her head. "It's not a voluntary thing unless you try to stop. I guess I have a bunch of sand and dust in my lungs from the Duat and being in here." Even now, when the ties of gravity were like the tug of a child's hand, she could still feel the weight in her lungs of what shouldn't be there, waiting for her to grasp at life and then snatch it away at the last second. "I need to get it out of my lungs, but while we're here, I can't exactly do that." She flew to the ceiling and raised a brow at the hand still holding hers. "Please don't tell me this is a used up cliche of not knowing how to express affection?"

"I let go, you lose the energy to stay a ghost. There isn't enough ectoplasm in this room to sustain a young ghost like you. Let's go, shall we?" The world as she knew it became distant and blurry, a gray space where even the mysterious torchlight cast only silver atop the darkness of the room. A solid ceiling became a rolling cloud of smoke thick enough to choke out the very sun and throw the world back into primordial darkness and storm. The two passed through the cloud almost like it wasn't there, though there were a few pockets of resistance for Febe.

* * *

When he woke up, Hugh was in a bed, surrounded by white walls and wearing crisp white clothes. Over his heart, 'Subject 0115' was printed in bold green letters. Everything was too bright and burning his retinas. Including the woman standing at the door, sci-fi rifle trained on him the second he groaned in pain. "Why do I feel like I tried out for football twenty times in a row?" If that came out coherently, the agent lady didn't show. She just kept aiming at him as though he were an incredibly dangerous animal in a flimsy cage. "I can think in full sentences again, that's good." His chest burned, and he pulled back his shirt collar to look down at the area over his heart. He let out a yelp and yanked off his shirt. In those same bright green letters, inked into his skin, was 'Subject 0115', as though he were nothing more than property to be tracked by his inventory number. His wrist burned and a high-pitch electrical whine filled the air.

"Calm down, now." The woman's voice was strict and cold, but Hugh didn't care. He scratched at the marking, trying to get it off of himself before logic kicked in and a scream of outrage tore itself out of his throat. His wrist burned more intensely, and something struck his leg, snapping Hugh from his anger to pain. He lay on his side and clutched the mark on his leg tightly, glaring daggers at the agent who shot him.

"You fuckwits fucking tattooed me, handcuffed me, and now you're reminding me what it's like to play paintball in the winter because I'm fucking pissed about it?!" Something churned within him in response to his anger, and the shirt he had discarded lifted itself off of the ground. "What kind of bitch shoots a kid who's panicking? What kind of tosspot brands another person, let alone a child?!" Hugh wasn't sure what it was that was roiling inside of him, but when he saw the agent's finger press down on her trigger, he grabbed onto it as tightly as possible and bared his teeth in a snarl. The ball of green plasma stopped mid flight and struck the wall behind him instead of Hugh's arm, but now the teen felt a throbbing ache in his head. Tears warmed his face as the boy went limp, all the energy that came with his shock and anger dying out.

Memories of what happened flooded his mind like a knife of ice. The debate he used to try and distract himself from the situation, him getting pissed off, everything looking purple for a minute, and then feeling nothing but pain and exhaustion. And then more pain. Then something brown made him feel somewhat safe, and he passed out.

Agent S studied her captive carefully and nodded to herself when satisfied that he was too tired to do anything more. "You are currently government property, and while I would have turned you into a puddle as soon as you tried to turn the good Doctor into a crispy critter, he and the other eggheads want you safe and fed." The door opened almost on cue, and a man in a white suit walked in with a tray of various meats, a baked potato, some spinach and a glass of orange juice. "Nothing's drugged, and you're expected to clean that plate." A plastic spork was set in front of him as Hugh sat up and the tray was set down.

She could be lying about the drugs, but as soon as he smelled the food, Hugh hadn't the energy to care. He grabbed the spork and dug into the meal. The teen was a big eater already, he was a growing boy after all, but right now he was running on fumes. It was only a moment before the tray cleared of everything. He drained the glass of juice and let out a burp. "Fuck, I was hungry." Hugh glared at the man who gave him the food and received a disgusted sneer in return. "And now that I've been properly tagged and fed, I'm going to be experimented on, right?" He looked over to his guard, scowling at her composed face. "Am I right or wrong? I'm not a person in the eyes of any of you clunges because I'm apparently some mutant changed up by… ectoplasm, right?"

"You're a freak of nature," the agent agreed with him. "Not human anymore. You don't have any right to deny the experiments. Everything done to you will be for the betterment of humanity."

"Does that include being talked down to by some random thug being backed by a secret government agency?" Hugh found himself sliding back into the position of polemic now that he had the energy to talk. "You don't even hesitate to shoot at me, just cause I happen to be feeling an emotion." His vision blurred and Hugh wiped away the tears but didn't try and stop more from coming. "You all want me to stay calm because feeling something makes some weird shit happen now, right? Instead of letting me figure out how to control that weird shit, or showing me how, or at least just fucking killing me and getting it over with, you restrain, burn and shoot me." Violet bled into his eyes as the room flickered in and out of solid white and shadowy mists. The alien force that got him into this mess was trying to help him, but something was blocking it. "You twats would rather cause pain instead of just reducing the threat by helping me figure out what the fuck is going on with me and how to control it. I am a human being with inalienable rights, and you asshats are going to spend the rest of your miserable lives in jail when I get out of here."

His wrist burned and the shadows solidified again. Hugh glared down at the white band around his left wrist, and practically growled at it."You don't even have the manners or cunning to offer me freedom in exchange for compliance. I'm going to be experimented on, vivisected, stabbed with needle after needle, drugged, and everything else that's too depressing for me to think about until I die here. It'd be false hope, but there's a sense of courtesy in offering it at least."

The guard had nothing to say to that. Instead, she glared at him and checked the settings on her weapon. After all, ectoplasmic freak or not, he was still a teenager. A child. Anyone with empathy would feel uncomfortable, contributing to the kind of torture that this kid was going to go through. "If you want that burning on your wrist to die down, you'll have to calm down." Agent S raised a brow as the brown in her captive's eyes flared up into a violent violet.

"Calm down? How the hell am I supposed to calm down? I've been kidnapped by sociopaths who only kept me alive because they want to experiment on me! My rights as a person are being ignored because of some genetic anomaly! I'm never gonna see my mother, my father, my best friends ever again!" The teen's eyes were now pools of burning acid. "Would you calm down if someone was pointing a gun at you for something that you had no control over? Would you keep control over your emotions if you were a teenager being wrongfully imprisoned? Can you even imagine how I'm feeling right now?"

Hugh closed his eyes, turning away from the cold face of his guard and tried to think of something, anything else. His mom's hugs, his dad's compliments, Ken's stupid jokes that always made him laugh, Tom's constant, endless arguments that always kept him on his toes in the debate club. It didn't make his anger any lesser, but it was overshadowed by something else. Depression settled over his limbs and weighed him down like a lead brick, and the burn lessened until it was no more than an itch. "I'm not getting out of here alive, am I?"

"Nope." Agent S relaxed slowly and shook her head. "You're already dead anyway."

* * *

When they surfaced, the world cast in strange bright hues of brilliant silver, white and pinks, Miftah examined the air a bit and sighed. Everything snapped back into focus, like the lens of a camera that had readjusted itself for new lightning. "What was that?" She asked quietly, looking around as they morning sun warmed her dead skin. Indigo light swept over her body and the area around them for a few meters, Miftah's hand raised outwardly.

"Cleared the air as much as possible." There was a collection of black gunk at the edges of his light, and Febe realized that it was dust. "Now, when I let go, I'm going to make you intangible as a human. Think you can manage not choking to death while I do that?" Febe glowered at her escort before the energy that was feeding into her body cut off. It wasn't a slowing trickle, but an immediate switch from there to gone. A flash of light and the world pulled her down the ground once again. There was the unnatural weight in her lungs once again, but almost immediately ice washed over her veins and the weight fell out through her chest and onto the ground. She heaved in air and dropped to her hands and knees.

Sweet, fresh oxygen filled Febe's lungs, and the thump of her heart pumped life into her body once more. It felt like forever before everything settled back into a steady, slow rhythm and Febe glanced up at her escort. He was watching closely, face unreadable. When the girl tried to stand, she was being lifted up by a pale, cold arm that could have been made of particularly thick mist. "Thank you," She rasped, her throat still feeling as though someone had poured sand into it. Febe rubbed her throat and looked out past the indigo dome of light. "I need water now." She held out her hand, watching as the light faded away and the sun bathed her in warmth. "Can't change on my own." No matter how hard she tried, Febe simply couldn't reach that alien energy that had settled within her chest. It was too weak, the spark fizzling out and the chill melting away like ice.

With a scoff, Miftah grasped Febe's hand and reached for her core. It showed that she had only become a ghost yesterday, as her core was shaking with instability. He pushed a steady flow of his energy into the tiny ball of power and felt the tips of his fingers heat up with the rapid drain. The hot sunlight warped around the half-blood, twisted by the shadows of her aura, and a ring of light snapped into existence around her middle. She was as he had first seen her. Blue skin and hair, violet eyes, and wrapped in a violet aura that twisted the shadows around her. If he weren't sure that this girl was a ghost, he'd say that she sported the aura of a spirit.

Shoving the thought out of his mind, Miftah turned to the big ball of light shining heat down on them and squinted. "Where are we going to find water, then? I doubt that there are any clean rivers nearby with how much pollution I've heard is in this world." He looked down at the humans and vehicles going every which way in the streets and hummed. A few more pulses of energy and he let go of his charge, deeming her strong enough to last long enough to find what she needed.

"We just need to find a convenience store; it'll have some water bottles and food that I can snack on." Febe exhaled slowly and pressed a hand to her chest when she felt that she was breathing again, even though she was a ghost once more. It made her feel heavier, but also soothed some part of her brain that was too instinctive to find words for. Moving forward, Febe searched for a few signs and flew off toward a taller building. "I think I know where we are... ah!" She found a street she regularly stalked through and kept to the air high above it. Miftah flew right behind her, eyes flitting around to every different thing. When Febe took note of this, she snorted and shook her head. "Tourist," she muttered under her breath and concentrated. It was just like what Miftah had done for them both when they rose through the ceiling. Even in the desert sun that felt at least twice as intense as normal, the chill of the grave washed over her and the world tilted on its head. The light faded away, and everything became of shadows. The people below her were splashes of dim color against a background of mist. The air was a fog of silvery gray lit up by the white of the blinding sun. The buildings were blurry outlines made from smoke, barely there and easily passed through.

Febe pushed moved through the wall in front of her and searched around. Everything was eerily dark, but she could recognize the vague shapes of shelves and the muted colors of human outlines all around her. This was the store she had been looking for. Finding the entrance, she settled down a few centimeters above the ground. "Where were the water bottles?" In her peripherals, Febe spotted Miftah, a frown on his face and arms crossed, though he was the only thing besides herself that was solid and easily discerned. Everything else was vague darkness, shadows, and mist. Even around the uptight spirit clung a cloud of purplish blue mist, the same as the light that surrounded him in the Duat.

Ignoring that, Febe moved through the memorized aisles and when she was sure that she was at the right spot, Febe allowed the world to go back to how it was supposed to be. Color returned, warmth spread over her skin, and the people and objects around her were solid and in focus. She grabbed a six pack of water bottles and returned to the invisible world of shadows within the same two seconds that she was solid.

* * *

When Danny and Sam got to the Far Frozen, they were met with a warm welcome. "Great One!" Frostbite exclaimed as he drew the teens into a hug. "To what do I owe this visit? Usually, you wait at least a week before coming back to us." He guided the two towards the laboratory where they tended to spend the most time.

"There's a crisis going on, and I need some help developing the tech we'll need to deal with it." Danny pulled out his journal and showed Frostbite the rough designs he had come up with on the way there. "I'm also gonna need a backup plan in case breaking in as a small group doesn't work." He laid down the sketch and recreated it with now light blue plasma in the air. "The main complication I can think of with the suit will be masking the presence of a level seven ghost like myself from the equipment that they no doubt have at the GIW base."

"Why are you going after the Guys in White, Great One? They are a danger not to be taken lightly, even if their less competent agents are the only ones you've faced so far." Frostbite examined Danny's design with critical eyes. A wave of his hand and the ectoplasm was shifted around to compensate for errors he saw in the device. "It's not a risk most are willing to take for even their closest friend."

"No sane person anyway, no." Sam shrugged and began searching through some of the data collected by the Far Frozen. "But we aren't exactly sane people. Also, the halfas that we told you about yesterday?" She turned to the large furry chief with a grim frown. "One of them was grabbed by the GIW. We're going to break him out asap."

"We're also going try getting the other ghosts that I'm pretty sure they have down there out," Danny grumbled, adjusting his calculations to match the power required to suppress his own. He never had an accurate reading, though, because of the way his powers fluctuated. "No one deserves to be put through those anti ecto Nazis' torture sessions. All in the name of benefitting humanity too." It made him sick, thinking about how many ghosts and spirits were being put through what his parents would do to a ghost that they caught. Sure, they were just blobs he hadn't noticed, but they still felt pain, and the screams got to the point where Danny and Jazz demanded the lab be sound proofed. "Once we get the ghosts out, we'll find out everything that they know, and then burn the facility to the ground."

"Why see what they know?" Sam turned to stare at her friend. "We should destroy the place right after we've rescued the ghosts and Hugh."

"The Great One is thinking strategically, Lady Manson." Frostbite gave Danny a pat on the back after adjusting something he had overlooked on the ectoplasmic model. "These Guys in White are an international threat that exists all over the earth. I know as many cold core ghosts have sought refuge here and told stories of how the white hunters attempted to wipe them off the face of reality." He frowned deeply, fangs almost bared in a snarl. "Knowing what the enemy knows is essential in preparing for the backlash of an infiltration."

"Plus, we can't destroy the base immediately. The escaped ghosts are either going to try and get out right away or seek revenge right away. I'm bringing a thermos to help keep the latter in line, but I won't be able to convince the former to drag the GIW out of their base so that I can destroy it without killing anyone." Danny grabbed his sketchbook and began to take down what he and Frostbite had come up with so far. "We'll need a few days to prepare the assault, too. We can't have any fuck ups, or else someone's going to die."

"Which is why we need to know of any plants that can be used to instantly knock someone out." Sam turned her gaze back to the computer screen and scanned over the information as quickly as she could without missing anything. It was taking too long in her opinion. "A ghostly sleep aid, maybe?"

"Nocturne's mist would do the trick for that," one of the other yeti's spoke up from the project he was working on. It was impossible not to notice Danny Phantom and his friend walking in with the chief and starting up discussions of war. "He aids all ghosts and spirits unable to rest, so that they may avoid fading for just a bit longer. He often helps people to discover what their obsession truly is."

"Nocturne attacked Amity Park, though, Frigus," Sam sighed and leaned against the computer console. "We can't exactly trust him to help us."

"That was hardly an attack," Frostbite snorted. "He actually told me about it personally, complaining about having to make himself seem weak to put the Great One through a test." Danny and Sam stared wide-eyed at the chief yeti. "He never told me if that test was passed. Most likely knew that I would tell you about this at some point."

"Nocturn wasn't exactly weak when we fought him," Danny shook his head. "He used the power of everyone's dreams to keep us down. We almost got stuck in his dream." Frostbite began laughing, and Danny frowned at his friend.

"Great One, while you are a powerful boy that defeated Pariah, you are still a child." Frostbite smiled knowingly at the superhero. "You are even more immature in the eyes of a ghost or spirit. How old to you think I am?"

Danny racked his mind for a moment and shrugged. "Two hundred years old?" This earned another bout of laughter from the yeti spirit, as well as the other scientists around them. "What?"

"That is to us what you would regard a twenty-year-old as. I am six hundred and forty-eight years old in human years. While I am not the most powerful spirit out there, I could easily give you a run for your money. I even managed to defeat Plasmius, after all." Frostbite grinned and created a small statue of Nocturn by his side. "Nocturn is far older and stronger than I. He does not require the use of machines to draw upon the power of dreams, Great One."

Danny sat down in his chair and turned that over in his head a couple of times. "He was holding back and staging a fake invasion of the Earth..."

"You defeated Pariah with a power boost that nearly killed you." Frostbite's smile was now gone. "If you had gone without that suit, you would have died. You know this, correct?" Danny nodded, and Frostbite sighed. "Then realize that there are several ancient spirits who you couldn't hope to truly defeat without leaps and bounds of power and strategy. If Nocturn wanted to kill you, you would be no more than a smear on the concrete right now. You can trust him to help you if you explain the problem." Danny nodded with a sigh. "Now, the problem that we can solve most quickly is this suit. It will take time, as you said, but if you can make that time, then we can have it ready in perhaps a week and a half."

Danny nodded and stood, a look of determination set on his face. Whether or not he could beat Nocturn on his own, or what trial Danny had been put through by the sleep spirit weren't important right now. He'd question Clockwork about it eventually since the Time Spirit was no doubt the one who put Nocturn up to it, but right now his focus had to be on helping Hugh. "Let's get to work then, shall we?"

* * *

Rising up through the smokey ceiling, Febe didn't stop until the world was filled with silvery-white mist and blinding light. She solidified, and let out a laugh. "That was... exhilarating! Does it feel like that everytime you become intangible?" She turned to Miftah, who's presence was announced by the heated cloud of mist that she could still see clinging to his form. "Because if so, I'm gonna have to do that a few more times."

"And you'll also have to learn how to become invisible. I imagine you also need this?" He held up a large bag of chips and raised a brow at his charge. "Food comes right after water does it not?"

"That it does, thank you." She accepted the bag and looked around swiftly. "I should find a different place to eat and drink this." Febe turned to Miftah with a sigh. "Also, I saw how you were looking around at everything. I bet you're curious about how things work in human society, so how about this. I'll call out to you if I need your help, and if not, I'll be waiting for you at the spot above the portal while you go, and sight-see, deal?"

"I don't make Deals with ghosts," Miftah sneered at her, pulling a green stylus out of a pocket and taking Febe's hand. "However, I will agree to a bit of separation. I want to know the layout in case I ever have to come back. Speak into this, and I'll be able to hear you." An upside down ankh was drawn onto her palm in white, before fading out of sight. Miftah released her and rose above the building. "Try not to get exorcised, will you?" He disappeared from view, and Febe muttered less than pleasant things about her escort under her breath. Rising up herself, Febe greeted the chill of the invisible world once more and moved toward the area that drew her in almost magnetically, a swirl of gold-tinged green in the shadows of the world around her. Behind her, she didn't see the tiny dots of green and white weaving around the crowds below, following after her escort.

* * *

 **Dun dun duuuun! Danny's not as fuckin OP as some people try to make him seem, Jazz has a new friend, Febe is amazed by the powers of spirits, and Miftah's about to find out just how bad it can be for anyone of the realm eternal on earth... oh and Hugh's still fucked.**

 **Invader Johnny: my friend, hell shall be unleashed at some point, so why not enjoy the ride to the keyhole?**

 **Moonmunirah97: Why thank you! I can't imagine a tech genius, a genius in general, and someone being groomed by her parents to run a business, along with a psychological genius, would be stupid enough to charge into everything guns blazing after a year or two of experience in combat with extradimensional entities. And no, Danny's a uh He's a brown belt in this, and it shows whenever he spars with Sam, who is a red belt. Danny became rather reliant on his super strength, super speed, preternatural reflexes, and etcetera and as such, his** purely **melee capabilities are a bit lacking. Relatively speaking anyway.**

 **P3tr1ch0rcrypt1d10r3: you are too kind! Thank you so much!**

 **Jim89:** **Dash, I feel, would try to do the heroic thing, because he sees himself as the better person. However, his instincts scream louder than his ego and self perception, and so he freezes up or runs. And yeah, there's more to the Casper High Ravens than just their quarterback. Kwan is unappreciated in my opinion. The GIW think of themselves as the best people on the planet as well, and as such, whatever they do is justified in their mission to protect humanity from the threat of the ectoplasmic. They plan to do some things with the data that they'll get off of Hugh, and if/once they get what they want, the worlds are all fucked. Febe is actually wrong, but so is Miftah. There is a difference in mindset and power between spirits and ghosts, but Febe isn't a ghost. She is a spirit. Ectoplasmic entities can tell the two apart based on auras, and Febe's humanity makes it harder for young spirits like Miftah to tell that she's a spirit and not a ghost. And no. Just... Miftah's not interested, and Febe wouldn't be caught dead (heh) falling for a guy like that. Vlad knows damn well how to get around Danny's ability to track his equipment, and even if he didn't, Vlad /is/ stronger and more skilled so he's not worried. The altruistic little badger would never do something that could get him killed, and if Vlad were jailed they'd both go down. I never said that it wasn't Danny's fault for not telling Valerie who he was when he had the chance, but Valerie wasn't always the nicest person to them before she got her ghost hunting equipment all in the name of popularity, and she didn't try too hard to be nice to Sam or Tuck when she started dating Danny for a little while if I remember correctly. She kinda just expected them to be nice to her, and while they do have some fault for not trying to be at least, she is also at fault. So the trust issues are all around and there's gonna be an explosion of bad things when secrets come crumbling down.** **Now, that's a relative thing, the ease with which you can build on the character of the MCs. Considering the fact that they didn't really have much of it in canon to begin with. I do my best, but my Sam will never be the best example of the kind of person she could be, same with Valerie, because I don't know their characters all that well and I have problems relating there. However, I agree that they need more representation, and I shall do my best to give it to ... some of the people mentioned. I don't like Vlad being one dimensional, nor Dash or Valerie. The canon cast will be getting some attention, but my babies must be given their own spotlight as well. Kwan is under appreciated, so I'm gonna have to figure out a way to properly establish who he is.**

 **Now that all that has been said and done, I gotta say it. I'm gonna put this story on Hiatus, while I outline how I want it to go and where I want it to go. It'll be a bit of time, but I promise not to take down this material until such a time as I have gotten to a good point in writing up the story. Thank you for all your support, and I hope you like the story when I bring it back. GOODNIGHT PHANS**


	11. PSA

**Attention my beloved readers and nerds, I am going to be resetting this story very soon. by which I mean I'm going to either delete this one here or i'm going to label it something like 'discontinued' and then post the new version up. either way, I'm going to restart this story very soon and I hope you all like what I've done with it this time around**


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